Project Masam experts: We lost five colleagues, and we remain committed to a noble goal

RIYADH: Even though Masam has lost dozens of its team members, including foreign experts, the team is determined to continue their efforts in saving the lives of the Yemenis.

“We have lost five…experts and a number of martyrs from Yemen who died while performing their mine-clearance work,” said Zawbaa Al-Rawi, Masam’s manager of operations in Aden and the west coast of Yemen.

“This, however, does not hinder the continuation of our work…The Masam project stands out from the rest of the global landmine projects as it is the only project that does not resort to external funding or require financiers and investors. It is fully financed by Saudi Arabia without resorting to other financing means.”

Al-Rawi said the members of Masam’s teams are all young Yemeni nationals who willingly put themselves at risk for the good of their country and out of a sense of national pride and respect.

Somaya Al-Mahmoud, the project’s director of public relations and media affairs, pointed out that the mine-clearance process resulted in the death of 30 of the project workers, including five foreign experts. She added that some 52 workers were injured while carrying out their mission.

For his part, Qasim Al-Dossary, assistant managing director of Project Masam, said: “Nearly 388,433 explosive devices, mines, and unexploded ordnance have been neutralized since mid-2018 to the present day, and around 44,635 million square meters have been cleared. These are vital populated areas that hold farms, roads, schools, hospitals, and water wells.”

Al-Dossary added: “Yemen is suffering from a major disaster. Both the local and international community must unify their efforts to address this humanitarian catastrophe, to rid the Yemenis of the effects of these mines, which claimed many lives in addition to the material losses they caused. It also led to the lack of development in villages and abandonment. It affected the citizens by pushing them to leave their sources of livelihood and migrate from their villages.”

Chris Clark, director of special projects at SafeLane Global Ltd., a UK-based company specializing in explosive ordnance mitigation and humanitarian demining, said that Masam Project is a remarkable Saudi humanitarian initiative in Yemen.

The project seeks to address the legacy of war by clearing landmines, unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices, Clark said, adding that Masam has been operating in Yemen for almost five years now.

“We have cleared a phenomenal amount of land and unexploded ordnance. To date, we have cleared around 45 million square meters of mine-contaminated land,” Clark said.

He added that in order to do that, the Masam team had to remove 137,000 antitank mines, over 6,000 antipersonnel mines, over 7,000 improvised explosive devices, and almost a quarter of a million items of unexploded ordnance.

“We do this through the deployment of 32 Yemeni demining teams, which are managed, coordinated, equipped, supported, trained, and ensured by Project Masam,” he said.

Clark said that the work Masam does not only saves lives but also serves as an investment in the future of Yemen and its people.

“Our work is not only lifesaving in the immediate sense, but also every mine and every square meter that they clear is a piece of land that won’t need to be addressed when the country is finally at peace. So, it is an investment in the future reconstruction and rehabilitation of Yemen as a country and as a people,” he said.

Clark, who has been involved in the sector for some 25 years, added that he is satisfied to take part in this life-saving project.

“It is extremely personally and professionally pleasing to be part of the Saudi initiative because it’s so unique and groundbreaking,” he said.

Deon von Landsberg, a training officer with Masam, said: “I work in Yemen on the manual mine-clearance project…and we train all teams on mine clearance.

“At this stage, we have 30 teams in the country and I am currently training another team. Once this is complete, they will be able to remove more mines safely.”