Fourteen-year-old Hiyal Jaber al-Jumaili suffered severe eye injuries when a war remnant exploded beside a road in southern Marib governorate, highlighting the risks posed by mines and unexploded ordnance to civilians travelling between villages, cities and service areas in Yemen.
Hiyal was travelling with his uncle on a road known as the al-Ain Route on the eve of the anniversary of the 26 September Revolution, when he got out near the Sailah Harib route, which had recently been reopened and rehabilitated to facilitate travel. There, he stumbled over an object that exploded in his face, ending the child’s journey ahead of the national holiday with a serious injury and a lengthy course of treatment.
The child was initially taken to a nearby pharmacy, then his uncle drove him along a rough desert road for more than two hours before they reached Marib city in eastern Yemen. After arriving, Hiyal underwent emergency surgery, followed by further procedures in an attempt to treat the damage to his eyes.
The initial medical report concluded that both eyes had been injured by the blast, with bleeding in the anterior chamber, cataracts and vitreous haemorrhaging. During the initial assessment, the child’s vision was limited to distinguishing hand movement. His family and doctors are still waiting to learn whether he can regain his sight and whether the injury will leave permanent effects.
His uncle Nawaf al-Jumaili, who has cared for him since the incident, says Hiyal currently spends most of his time blindfolded and has become quiet and withdrawn. His suffering is not limited to physical treatment; the injury has left him waiting anxiously and uncertain about his future and ability to return to his normal life.
Mines redraw civilians’ daily movements
The risks from mines and war remnants extend beyond the moment of an explosion. Their spread across roads, pathways, farms and grazing areas changes people’s daily movements, making travel to villages and cities or access to hospitals, schools and essential services dangerous, particularly in areas far from governorate centres.
In Marib, the war closed major roads linking the governorate to Sana’a, al-Bayda and other parts of Yemen, forcing residents to use alternative routes through desert or mountainous areas, according to Dr Ali al-Tam, head of the Protection for Civilian Orientation Organisation, known as HOCO, a non-governmental humanitarian rights organisation. Al-Tam says the alternative roads are longer and rougher, doubling journey times and increasing travel costs.
This situation has also made it harder for residents of remote areas to reach hospitals, schools and other essential services, as they are forced to use routes that may be contaminated by mines or munitions left by the war. The danger zone does not remain confined to sites where remnants were originally planted or fell.
According to al-Tam, seasonal floods can carry mines and war remnants from mountains and areas of fighting into watercourses, farmland and secondary roads. This changes the map of contaminated areas and makes them harder to identify, mark and secure. The Masam Project for Landmine Clearance in Yemen says floods and shifting sands, along with limited access to some areas, hinder survey and clearance work.
452 civilian casualties in Marib over a decade
The remnants still pose a direct threat to residents, according to the project, as well as affecting farming activity and roads used to reach services. The Protection for Civilian Orientation Organisation documented 452 civilian deaths and injuries caused by mines and war remnants in Marib over 10 years.
Some survivors suffered mobility, hearing or visual disabilities, creating treatment and rehabilitation needs that continue after emergency medical care ends. During 2025 and 2026, the organisation said it recorded 61 civilian deaths and injuries in the governorate caused by mines and war remnants.
Most of the victims were women and children, as well as herders, farmers and travellers—groups whose daily activities depend on open roads, farmland, grazing areas and uninhabited spaces. Al-Tam says children may be injured while playing with unexploded ordnance, while women face danger when collecting water or firewood.
Herders, farmers and travellers face similar risks because they regularly move through open land and remote pathways whose freedom from mines and other remnants of the fighting is difficult to verify. The consequences of an incident do not end when the injured person is rescued or leaves hospital.
Shortfalls in rehabilitation worsen the impact of injuries
The Protection for Civilian Orientation Organisation estimates that more than 50% of victims have not received comprehensive medical and psychological rehabilitation services, while vocational rehabilitation opportunities have not been available to about 80%. Some survivors, al-Tam says, need specialised care unavailable locally, while others face loss of income, psychological isolation and difficulty returning to education or work.
At the Marib Prosthetics and Rehabilitation Centre, patients pass through stages beginning with treatment and rehabilitation, followed by preparation and fitting of a prosthetic limb, training in its use and subsequent follow-up. Centre director Dr Ammar al-Sheikh says it received more than 112 people injured by mines and war remnants during 2025 and 2026, most of them men, including military personnel and civilians.
Al-Sheikh links fluctuations in case numbers to conditions on the fronts and the level of fighting, explaining that relative calm during earlier periods was reflected in the number of injured before cases rose again as fighting resumed. Nevertheless, the danger remains during periods of calm because mines and remnants are still present in valleys, mountain passes and flood channels.
War injuries, according to the centre’s director, are the leading cause of amputations it treats, followed by road accidents and then medical conditions. Since it began providing services in 2020, the centre has delivered more than 129,000 services to over 42,000 people, including prosthetic fitting and rehabilitation programmes.
Al-Sheikh describes rehabilitation as an integrated system that begins at the amputation stage and does not stop when the prosthetic limb is handed to the injured person. The process aims to help survivors regain mobility and independence, then reintegrate them into society economically, socially and culturally.
Clearance teams destroy war remnants and reopen farmland
Alongside treatment and rehabilitation services, teams from the Masam Project remove mines, munitions and war remnants from sites used by civilians. In a recently announced operation, the project destroyed 299 items of war remnants in the Dhukhar area of southern Yemen’s al-Dhale governorate, including anti-personnel mines, improvised explosive devices, shells, munitions, fuses and hand grenades.
The project said the destroyed items had been collected over recent months from different areas of al-Dhale governorate. It also reported incidents caused by people tampering with the remnants, particularly children, women and sheep herders, indicating that the danger persists even after fighting has stopped at sites where they remain.
The project’s activities also include awareness campaigns for farmers and herders about suspected contaminated sites, aimed at discouraging entry or contact with suspicious objects until survey and clearance work is complete. Across Yemen, the project says its teams have removed hundreds of thousands of mines, unexploded munitions and improvised explosive devices since operations began in 2018, and cleared tens of millions of square metres.
Al-Tam believes addressing the issue requires measures beyond mine removal and land clearance, including sustained awareness programmes in schools, displacement camps and local communities; documentation of contaminated sites and warning signs around them; and treatment, rehabilitation, psychological support and economic empowerment for victims.
He also calls for a mechanism to compensate the injured and provide redress for the harm suffered by their families, saying its absence leaves many survivors and their families facing health, psychological and economic consequences with limited resources. Hiyal’s injury is part of this extended process: a pause beside a road became a journey of surgeries, treatment and rehabilitation, while the future of his sight remains uncertain.
