Landmines pose hidden danger to Yemen civilians

Every day, civilians in Yemen face a most dangerous, but often hidden threat - landmines placed by the warring factions.

In a hospital in Aden, a young girl told British broadcaster Sky News how she was badly injured by a mine she picked up as she was playing in a field.

A doctor who treated her says the girl is lucky to be alive - she lost one hand, and shards penetrated parts of her body and blinded one of her eyes.

Civilians continue to pay a heavy price as fighting continues in Yemen.

The conflict in the Arab world's poorest country has killed more than 100,000 people and left millions suffering from lack of food and medical care.

Taiz, Yemen's third largest city, has seen some of the worst fighting and sieges of the war.

To this day, parts of the city remain under the control of the Houthi rebels, while other parts are controlled by those fighting for the Saudi-led coalition.

It has also seen infighting between pro-government factions, and a double siege, enforced by the Houthis locally, and the coalition on a national scale.

As the warring sides battle for control, residents are finding their streets turned into deadly thoroughfares.

Sky spoke to a young boy who showed the scars of where a bullet from a sniper's rifle had torn through his body.

His grandfather spoke of the family's anguish at the boy's fate but said that this is what life was like for the people of Taiz.

As the number of civilians injured by landmines increases, a new centre has opened up in the city to provide them with artificial limbs.

One of them is Hind Yousuf, who told Sky she lost her leg after stepping on a landmine hidden near a wall.

As she practiced using her new prosthetic leg, she told Sky two other members of her family had suffered similar injuries.

The conflict in Yemen began in late in 2014, when Houthi rebels swept down from the mountains and occupied northern Yemen and the capital, Sanaa.

The Iran-backed rebels pushed the internationally recognised government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to the south and eventually into exile.

As the rebels pushed farther south, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states, backed by the United States, formed a coalition to take on the Houthis.

They intervened in Yemen in 2015, describing their involvement as an effort to stop Iran from gaining sway over the country.

Last year, infighting also broke out in southern Yemen between government forces and separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates.

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