Yemen: Human rights reports reveal Houthi militia crimes against children
The terrorist Houthi militia continues to commit human rights violations and crimes in Yemen in an attempt to control the situation in many parts of the country. At the top of the violations committed by the terrorist militia are the recruitment of children in many parts of Yemen and their being pushed into the war.
Human Rights Organization “Mayyun” revealed in a recent report that Houthi militias have recruited more than 400 children over the past months in Taiz province, southwestern Yemen, and they were prepared in a reception camp in the city of Al-Saleh in Taiz, and they were transferred to a military training center belonging to the Houthi militia in Dhamar province. The human rights organization said that the abduction and recruitment of children by Houthis is a flagrant violation of children’s rights, and called for commitment to the action plan it signed with the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations last April. The UN plan signed with the Houthis includes stopping the recruitment of children in their ranks and demobilizing conscripts within six months of signing the agreement. The plan includes prohibiting the recruitment and use of children in armed conflicts.
Yemeni human rights activist Abdul Hafeez Nahari said the Houthis have committed grave crimes against children, including rape and other terrorist crimes, most notably kidnapping children and forcing them to join military training centers for use in terrorist and criminal acts in many areas of Yemen. He said summer camps are held in schools and at a mosque used by the Houthis to spread their ideology among children, encourage them to fight and provide them with basic military training, or recruit them to fight.
The Yemeni human rights activist explained that Houthi sometimes deceives the children’s parents and claims that they will enroll in cultural courses. These are essentially terrorist camps through which children are recruited.
A UN report documented the killing of 1,406 children who were thrown into the battlefields by the Houthis in 2020, and 562 children between January and May 2021, noting that the ages of the children ranged between 10 and 17 years, most of whom were killed in the provinces of Amran, Dhamar, Hajjah and Hodeidah, in addition to Saada and Sanaa. The report included information on the Houthis’ exploitation of summer camps and cultural courses to mobilize and encourage them to join the fighting; The team observed schools and a mosque used by the Houthis to spread their ideology among children.
