ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni government forces declared on Wednesday that a large minefield planted by the Houthi rebels in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah was dismantled.
"A team of the explosives experts managed to dismantle a minefield planted by the Houthis in Khokhah district of Hodeidah and protected civilians living in that areas," the pro-government Giants Brigades said in a statement.
It added that "two women discovered that landmines started to appear because of the recent rains and wind and immediately called the explosives experts to check the area."
"The team of experts headed to the area ... uncovering a minefield left over by the Houthi militia which withdrew from the area last year," the statement said.
The experts were able to "dismantle and remove more than 20 landmines in an area frequently visited by sheep and camel herders," it added.
Landmines and explosives of various kinds and sizes are considered a deadly long-standing threat to the lives of millions of Yemenis and have killed and injured hundreds of them, including women and children.
Previous reports of humanitarian organizations suggested that Yemen has become one of the largest landmine battlefields in the world since the World War II.
The Houthi rebels launched a large military campaign and seized the capital Sanaa in late 2014, forcing Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government into exile in neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries intervened militarily and began pounding the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa in March 2015 in response to an official public request from Hadi to protect Yemen and roll back Iran's influence.
The conflict between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has recently entered its fifth year, aggravating the suffering of Yemenis and deepening the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
