Yemeni schoolboy Abdulqader Mubarak’s battered body explains why anti-personnel landmines are banned in most of the world. Unknown to the 13-year-old’s family as they began to repair the war damage to their home in Aden’s Kour Maksar district, Houthi rebels had mined the area as they retreated. His mother, Mohsenah, and his sister-in-law, Sama Ali Ahmed, bore the brunt of the blast when a mine was triggered and died of their injuries. Abdulqader’s left hand had to be amputated.

Use of this kind of landmine is particularly reviled because it kills indiscriminately, unable to distinguish between combatants and civilians such as Abdulqader’s family. The mines also remain dangerous long after hostilities conclude, particularly if those who deploy them fail to make any accurate records of where they have done so. Rendering mined areas – or even territory suspected of being mined – safe is a painstakingly slow and difficult process, leaving large areas unable to be used and discouraging the reoccupation of homes and the reuse of agricultural land.

Yemen is a signatory to the Ottawa Treaty that has sought to eliminate the use of anti-personnel mines but that ratification only covers the internationally-recognised government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi and not the Houthi rebels. In a theme repeated time and again in this conflict, the use of landmines shows the yawning gap between the aims of the government, which seeks to restore order, stability and opportunity for all Yemenis, and the rebels, who seek to sow fear and destruction for their own ends.

Armed conflict of the kind that is ravaging Yemen is, inevitably, ugly and brutal. It wrecks lives and destroys hope. It says something about the international community that within this inevitability there can be rules of engagement designed to lessen the effect on innocents. The movement to ban anti-personnel landmines, which took effect in 1999, is an example of this, but the Houthis’ indiscriminate use of them demonstrates once again that they do not qualify to be in the category of civilised groups.

Nobody is underplaying the enormous task that Mr Hadi’s government will face once Yemen is returned to its control. Restoring order, stability and economic opportunity for ordinary Yemenis will take years. Having to also deal with the deadly legacy of landmines left behind by the Houthis will make that process even tougher.

The National