Yemen – Houthi rebels continue to recruit child soldiers
The terrorist militia continues its plans and ongoing terrorism to target the state of Yemen and threaten its stability in order to carry out Iran’s expansionist plan in the region. Since 2014, the Houthi militia has worked at a high pace to attract, recruit and involve children in military operations, using schools, mosques, summer centers, and the media.
Student incitement
Human rights organizations said that Houthi officials recorded testimonies and video recordings of their inciting students in public schools during their visits to those schools, especially in primary and secondary schools. Houthi militia media also showed child combatants spearheading the battles and spoke to those outlets about their experiences in combat.
Child recruitment
According to reports by human rights organizations, between May 2014 and early 2022, Houthi militias recruited 12,054 children, including 308 child soldiers in the 8-11 age group, 4,430 children in the 12-14 age group, and 7,305 children in the 15-17 age group.
Omran province was the most populous province in Yemen for the militia’s recruitment of children. It recorded 1,935 child soldiers, followed by Dhamar province with 1,861 child soldiers, Sanaa province with 1,861 child soldiers, Taiz province with 1,248 child soldiers, Saada with 1,116 child soldiers, Sanaa with 1,031 children, and Hajjah province with 803 children.
Battle fronts
It is a war crime that cannot be outdated. Moreover, Yemeni children are the most vulnerable to all the violations that are prohibited internationally and nationally. Child soldiers are also subject to sexual exploitation in all its forms, and children participating in the front leave their schools under the influence of destructive sectarian mobilization, which will continue for decades to come.
Ongoing crimes
“The international community has not taken any step to stop the recruitment of children by the Houthi militia and using them as fuel for its senseless war,” said Abdulhafeez Nahari, a Yemeni political analyst. “Children are being lured and mobilized with extremist ideas and slogans of death, violence, and hatred, confirming its preparations for a new cycle of escalation and its continuation in the widest recruitment of children in human history.”
The Houthis are setting up camps and holding courses to encourage young people and children to fight, all of these crimes require taking a strong stance and pursuing the leaders and members of the militia responsible, and placing them on international terrorism lists, the Yemeni political analyst added.
The Houthis are exploiting humanitarian aid and preventing it from reaching Yemenis, he said, adding that widespread violations, including the use of children in battle, as well as torture and attacks on men and women, are continuing in Yemen’s provinces.
