Yemen is a signatory to the international Mine Ban Treaty but the deadly munitions still pose a major threat. PHOTO: AFP
DUBAI: Six demining experts were killed in an explosion on Thursday at an arms depot in Yemen's Red Sea city of Mokha, said the Saudi landmine clearance project which employs them.
The project, MASAM, said on its website that the six experts, whose nationality was not given, died in a blast at a depot containing mines and other explosive devices which were to be destroyed.
In January, five foreign experts also with MASAM - two from South Africa, a Croatian, a Bosnian and a Kosovar - died in an accidental explosion in the central province of Marib.
Five killed in heavy fighting in Yemen's Taez: MSF
Rights groups say landmines have killed and injured hundreds of civilians and blocked aid deliveries since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in the government's war against Huthi rebels in 2015.
According to the World Health Organisation, nearly 10,000 people - most of them civilians - have been killed and more than 60,000 wounded in fighting since March 2015.
Rights groups say the toll could be much higher.
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