Yemen – Houthis pledge to renounce child soldiers
Houthi rebels in Yemen have agreed to empty their ranks of child soldiers, who have fought in their thousands during the country’s seven-year civil war, the United Nations said Monday.
The Houthis signed what the UN described as an action plan to stop and prevent the recruitment or use of children in armed conflict, but also the killing or maiming of children and the attack on schools and hospitals.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the rebels had committed to identifying the children in their ranks and to release them within the next six months.
Houthi Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein al-Azey and a representative of the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF), Philippe Duamelle, posed for the media at a signing ceremony in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a. The Houthis described the agreement as a plan to protect children.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government in exile has made similar commitments in several documents signed since 2014, the UN said.
Virginia Gamba, the UN’s highest-ranking official who deals with children in war zones, called the Houthis’ decision “a positive and encouraging step”, but stressed that “the most difficult part of the journey begins now”.
“The action plan must be fully implemented and lead to concrete actions to improve the protection of children in Yemen,” said Ms Gamba, who signed in New York as a witness to the Houthis’ commitment, in a statement.
The UN says that nearly 3,500 children were recruited and deployed in Yemen’s civil war. However, a senior Houthi military official told the Associated Press (AP) in 2018 that the group had then integrated 18,000 child soldiers into its army.
Former child soldiers also told the AP that boys as young as 10 had been recruited. At the time, a Houthi military spokesman denied any systematic recruitment of persons under the age of 18 and assured that there were orders to refuse children who attempted to enlist.
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More than 10,200 children were killed or maimed during the war, according to the UN. It is not known how many of them could have been combatants.
Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthis seized Sana’a and pushed the government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition, including the United Arab Emirates, went to war in early 2015 to try to re-establish the government in power.
Observers estimate that the conflict killed more than 14,500 civilians, out of a total of 150,000 deaths when combatants are included. The fighting also caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
The warring parties agreed earlier this month to the first national truce in six years. The two-month pact was scheduled to begin during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and raised hopes of creating a momentum for peace in that country.
Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi stepped down last week and said a new presidential council would lead the government-in-exile and lead negotiations with the Houthis.
