Made in Yemen: How Houthis’ use of sea mines affects fishing communities
On that fateful day, Waheeb Hassan Ismael Muhamary had asked his only son, Bakir, to join him as he went fishing. The duo, 36 and 9, respectively, was pulling the fishing net to their boat in the middle of the sea in front of Al-Toor Shore when they unfortunately dragged a sea mine.
It exploded on their boat and killed them both on 4 September 2018.
The same year, a fisherman named Subaitty Antar Jabahy was heavily injured by the detonation of another sea mine.
Ali Muhamad, meanwhile, was recently killed in another net caching sea mine incident near the shore of the district of Al Ghwaireeq. A young woman, Awadha, and her two-year-old baby girl were killed as they watched the local’s attempt to clear the mine from the fishing net.
These were some of the hundreds of naval mines scattered on the West Coast of Yemen.
“It is well known that Houthi militants have deployed hundreds of sea mines during their withdrawing from the Aden region west to Bab Al-Mandab and continuing up north to Hodeidah late 2016–2017,” Dr. Zauba Al Rawi, humanitarian mine clearance Project Masam’s Aden Operations Officer explained.
Information gathered by Masam shows that all sea mines were located between Khokha shore of Hodeidah Governorate in the north and Dhubab district of Taiz Governorate in the south.
Al Rawi manages 16 humanitarian mine clearance teams operating on the western coast of the embattled Arabian Peninsula country.
The reasons for the unrestricted use of these deadly explosive devices are two-fold: to disturb the international naval line of trade in the Red Sea, and to abort any Coalition landing attempts from the sea.
“They are likely to be deployed around the Red Sea ports, as well as along stretches of the same coastline where the Houthis assessed that landing crafts could come ashore in order to form a beachhead — that could be a significant length of coast,” a Masam IED Threat Officer, who doesn’t want to be identified, added.
Unknown naval mine numbers
Because of the nature of these explosive devices, it is impossible to know exactly how many have been planted.
International media reports assessed 171 sea mines have been dealt with by the American Navy and Coalition force, while reliable local sources estimate a total of 120 sea mines have been found and dealt with by coast guards and local authorities since 2018.
Reliable sources further confirmed that a team of local engineers destroyed 33 sea mines before Masam’s teams’ deployment in the area in mid-2018.
“These sea mines can present a direct threat to the people on land,” Al Rawi explained, adding that the teams take all safety precautions and follow the procedures of performance as described in the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
Masam teams do not engage with any sea mines offshore, but have been giving support to Yemen Executive Mine Action Centre (YEMAC) when dealing with naval mines that have washed ashore.
Masam received authorisation from the Yemeni military to destroy four Iranian Limpet-type naval mines on 20 January 2022. The mines were handed over to Masam by the Security Forces in Ataq, in Shabwah Governorate.
“These mines where either on route to the west coast to be utilised against ships as intended or to be utilised as improvised explosive devices (IEDS) in Shabwah theatre of war,” Gus Maartens, Masam Project Manager, said from Aden.
Limpet mines are attached to the hull of a ship by the magnets built into the mine — the mine is then armed, setting the time delay in motion. These types of mines have an anti-removal switch that will cause the mine to function when trying to remove the mine from the ship’s hull.
Houthi-made sea mines
The latest sea mine to date was discovered on the shore of Khokha on 28 May 2022, and Masam’s Team 26, led by Sami Hemmed, destroyed the mine in situ.
“The sea mine that Team 26 destroyed recently was the first one that Masam has officially dealt with. One of our Team Leaders dealt with a number of them prior to joining Masam because he is from a west-coast tribe,” the IED Threat Officer said.
“The ones that are found are washed ashore because they have become detached from their anchor assemblies and so they may have travelled some distance from where they were planted.”
The only naval mines that the IED Threat Officer has seen reporting of are the so-called Houthi improvised naval mines.
“The known Houthi variety is a ‘moored contact naval mine’ which is buoyant but held just under the surface of the water because it is attached to an anchor assembly on the sea bed,” the IED Threat Officer explained, from Aden.
Superficially these are a copy of military naval mines such as the Soviet M-KB Moored Contact Naval Mine, however, internally the fusing system is likely to be different to military mines.
As part of their propaganda, the Houthis also showed off a number of other types of sea mines during their weapons exhibition in 2021 (dubbed the Martyr Leader Exhibition for Military Industries), including influence mines for use in very shallow water.
The Houthi improvised naval mines are “most likely locally produced”, the IED Threat Officer highlighted.
“The locals use the terms ‘Iranian made’ and ‘Houthi made’ interchangeably because they are a joint effort. The Iranians probably provide the designs, the raw materials and the training in order for the Houthis to conduct the manufacturing process.”
“It’s likely the same for the majority of the Houthi arsenal.”
This is echoed by Al Rawi who explained that the 33 sea mines dealt with by YEMAC and local engineers (before Masam’s operations) as well as the 28 May one “were from the origin of Soviet sea mine T-26 which also known as M-KB or MYAM, and copied by Iranian armament industry and renamed as SADAF-01 — which means Shell.”
This type of sea mine is normally supplied with four horns although there might be an extra horn base, each one attached to an ordinary MK-6 detonating mechanism which works either on breaking a pressure plate or releasing a steel ball that ignites the pistol action.
The original soviet mine had a total weight of 180 pounds (about 85 kg) of compact high explosives and activated by a contact pressure of about 2,450 newton (250 kg).
No measurement is known for the Iranian copy, but estimates are that the weight of the explosive would be much less — between 30 and 50 kg.
They are all, however, supplied with an adjustable anchoring device to choose the desirable depth of the mine depending on the purpose of its use, Al Rawi explained.
Depending on which part of a sea vessel triggered one of these improvised sea mines, they would easily be capable of destroying small to medium vessels (fishing boats, etc…) and would likely cause significant damage to a warship but probably not sufficient enough to sink one.
“The explosive content is unknown (an estimated 30kg) and likely to be homemade explosive, which is not as powerful and so these Houthi devices are probably not directly comparable to the mines that they are trying to emulate,” the IED Threat Officer said.
Affected coastal communities
When speaking to locals on the West Coast, it is not common to hear the tales of fishermen who were killed by sea mines.
The true number of deaths is not known, but the IED Threat Officer believes their presence “is not impacting the industry, only individual households”.
One such victim, Yahya Salem Bakr, was a fisherman who went out to sea every day in Hodeidah Governorate to provide a living for his family including five children.
A sea mine exploded on Bakr’s boat as soon as he stopped his engine at a fishing site in the Red Sea, in October 2020.
According to Bakr’s wife, her husband left the house at dawn every morning to pursue the profession — but they did not realise that this fishing trip would be his last.
Yahya Bakr, who hails from Al-Durayhimi district, south of Hodeidah, said her husband’s fishing income was an important source of livelihood for the family, which was left without a breadwinner when Bakr was killed.
This is a sadly familiar story.
Grandmother Samia Sa’id, who is in her late 70s, agreed to share her story with Project Masam, outside her village.
“One of my children went out to work and he was shot. A mine exploded at my second child and his cousin, who were in the sea,” she explained, pointing to the fact both men were on their boat when a sea mine exploded.
Families like Samia and Yahya Salem Bakr’s no longer have a steady source of income. The elderly woman said she is now destitute.
Displaced Marwan Youssef Taleb had both legs amputated after a landmine exploded killing several members of his family including his sister and friend.
Taleb said that since Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, Houthi militias had been planting land and sea mines near his home on the Red Sea coast.
Whilst Yemeni fishermen are killed by sea mines, those unable to access fishing sites are also deprived of their source of income and food.
“[Houthis] destroyed our livelihood, as we depended on our work in the sea,” Marwan explained. “They deprived us of everything, even our homes, we can’t return to them. They target civilians, the military, anything…”
“We are exhausted and we can do nothing. I hope that all mines will be cleared from our country, and that I will be the last victim in Yemen,” the young man added.
By clearing coastal areas and areas of immediate humanitarian priority, Project Masam is preventing future tragedies and allowing for the safe movement of civilians and humanitarian goods and services, effectively creating resilience within communities affected by the threat of land and sea mines.
“I think [having a mine free coast] will be more important for the country when the ports are opened up to international shipping again,” the IED Threat Officer explained.
“I suspect large commercial vessels will avoid Yemen’s ports until they are confirmed clear of mines. The Yemeni coast guard has been clearing mines when they find them and so this may be partially completed.”
Since mid-2018, Project Masam has cleared 343,811 explosive items including 5,267 anti-personnel landmines, 127,454 anti-tank landmines, 7,375 improvised explosive devices (IED) and 203,715 UXO (as at 9 June 2022).
By Elsa Buchanan
