Yemeni human rights activist calls for blacklist of Houthi militia leaders involved in child recruitment

The Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist militia continues its plans to turn schools in areas under its control into combat camps – a war crime and a crime against humanity – to train children to dismantle and use light and medium weapons, and then lead them to death on the front lines, in the largest crime against education and childhood in Yemen.

Houthi abuses

Numerous reports have revealed that criminal practices bring back memories of ISIS and al-Qaeda’s training of children in the use of weapons in special camps. Many warn of the disastrous future consequences of child recruitment at schools and the deviation of classes from their educational goals, which Yemenis will pay for for for generations to come.

International condemnation

As several international organizations mobilized, the Arab Center – Washington, accused the Houthi terrorist militia of continuing to recruit children despite the UN-sponsored truce.

The center said in a report that despite the pledge of the coup militias to the United Nations last April to end this violation, they will continue to push Yemeni children to the front lines with the machinations of the investing leaders, financial need, and tribal solidarity. It warned of the accumulation of these practices for years to come, which will affect the whole Yemeni society.

The Washington-Arab Center report is based on reports from UN agencies such as the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that the majority of reports it has received on child recruitment have been committed by Houthi militias.

Heinous crimes

Ahmed Jabbari, a Yemeni analyst and human rights researcher, said that the terrorist militia commits the most heinous forms of violations and crimes by recruiting children, stressing that it is imperative for the international community, the United Nations, the UN envoy and human rights organizations to protect children from carrying out their legal duties in the face of this heinous crime, and to work to prepare a blacklist of Houthi militia leaders involved in recruiting children and derail the educational process.

Militias are looting international humanitarian aid, which has played an important role in child recruitment, he said, as the group has looted humanitarian aid, exploited people’s need for it and bargained with the recruitment of children in return for aid.

The recruitment and recruitment of child soldiers by the Houthis is taking place in 83 centers in areas controlled by pro-Iranian Houthi militias, Jabbari said, adding that the UN estimates that at least 10,000 children have been killed in Yemen since the war began in 2014.