UNSC documents child recruitments in Yemen

U.N. experts said in a new report that nearly 2,000 children recruited by Yemen’s Houthi rebels died on the battlefield between January 2020 and May 2021, and the Iranian-backed rebels continue to hold camps and courses encouraging youngsters to fight.

In the report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Saturday, the experts said they investigated some summer camps in schools and a mosque where the Houthis disseminated their ideology and sought to recruit children fight in the seven-year war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition.

The experts said they documented 10 cases where children were taken to fight after being told they would be enrolled in cultural courses or were already taking such courses.

Nine cases where humanitarian aid was provided or denied to families “solely on the basis whether their children participated in fighting or to teachers on the basis of whether they taught the Houthi curriculum,” and one case where sexual violence was committed against a child who underwent military training.

The panel said it received a list of 1,406 children recruited by the Houthis who died on the battlefield in 2020 and a list of 562 children recruited by the rebels who died on the battlefield between January and May 2021.

The annual U.N. report, covering the year to Dec. 5, 2021, said the Houthis and paramilitary forces loyal to them continue to violate a U.N. arms embargo.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of supplying weapons to the Houthis in violation of the arms embargo. The experts reported the seizure of some Iranian-made weapons, but Iran denies any involvement in providing weapons to the rebels.