Médecins Sans Frontières - WEBCLIP: Landmine victims from Mawza, Yemen (INT)

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF256121

Date taken / Date Recorded 13/12/2018 12:00 AM

Country Yemen

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Armelle Loiseau

Copyright MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available yes

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

Video format h264 (Constrained Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 2m52s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 287.34 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Mawza - December 2018

A team of Yemeni mine clearers is working in the area around Mawza
This is what they’ve found so far
But the fields are still littered with mines, injuring many and preventing others from farming
With no way of knowing whether it was safe or not, 8 months ago this man went to farm his land

Man (in Arabic)
I left home and was heading to the fields. I hadn't noticed anything unusual, then I stepped on the landmine and it exploded. I found myself lying on the ground. My father picked me up and took me to the hospital to get my leg treated. We went to Aden. We borrowed a car borrowed from a man in the village

The journey to Aden takes over 8 hours

Since then, MSF has opened a hospital in Mocha
It’s the only medical facility in the area providing emergency surgical care
It means precious hours are saved for the war-wounded

During medical rounds (in English):
Amarah Saeed Mohammad, 8 years old. Post bomb explosion. Open fracture of the tibia and fibula

Amarah’s grandmother (in Arabic)
She was looking after the sheep and playing in the fields. Several kids were injured or killed in the explosion. People get injured by landmines every day.

Dr Bernard Leménager, surgeon (in French)
« Elle a eu des shrapnels, elle a eu une plaie abdominale pénétrante avec une lésion du colon, du gros intestin. Quand le gros intestin est abîmé, on pourrait le réparer d’emblée mais bien souvent cette réparation elle ne tient pas. Donc elle risque de fuir secondairement dans le ventre et de faire une péritonite, ce qui est très grave.
She’s got shrapnel wounds and a penetrating abdominal wound with a perforated colon, the large intestine. We could repair the large intestine straight away but it often doesn’t hold properly. The repair could then leak and in turn cause peritonitis, which would be very serious indeed.

Amarah will have to wear a colostomy bag for several weeks
She will also need a skin graft on her wounded leg
In the meantime, the physiotherapist is helping her regain her strength

Between August and December 2018
MSF teams treated more than 150 landmine victims
a third of whom were children