Yemen is facing one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world. The conflict that began in 2015 has displaced 4.5 million people and left 18.2 million people in need of humanitarian aid.
Despite a de facto truce since 2022, fields and cities are littered with landmines and explosives, making it impossible for families to return home. Spillover from regional conflicts threaten the fragile ceasefire.
Our Work
Clearing landmines
Risk Education
Clearing unexploded ordnance
HALO established a registered office in Aden in 2019. We are working closely with YEMAC, the national mine action organisation, to clear landmines and other explosives on a large scale so families can return home. As a first step, we provided training and mentoring to YEMAC staff and surveyed land and communities to fully understand the extent of the challenge. HALO established a registered office in Aden in 2019 and in Ta'iz City in 2022.
In the years since, HALO operations have expanded to now include explosive ordnance risk education, mechanical and manual clearance in tightly-packed urban environments and removing the threat posed by items of explosive ordnance through the destruction or safe removal. We are also clearing minefields in more rural settings.
As the first mine action operator to use mechanical clearance in Yemen, our teams in Ta'iz are working to clear contamination in the city centre. High levels of destruction in densely populated areas demand an innovative approach to humanitarian mine action. Using armoured plant machinery such as front-loaders and excavators, operators can clear areas contaminated with debris – such as damaged and destroyed concrete – as well as explosives more efficiently and safely than manual clearance teams.
So far, our teams have destroyed over 150 tonnes of explosive ordnance, and mechanically cleared 116,000 square meters across Aden and Ta'iz, aiding the recovery of communities affected by the legacy of years of conflict.