Yemen's Houthi militia generate more child soldiers

Despite an agreement with the UN in April to halt the practice, the Houthis continue to recruit children into the military ranks to fight in the country’s grinding civil war, Houthi officials, aid workers and residents told the AP.

Two Houthi officials said the group recruited several hundred children including as young as 10 over the past two months. Those children have been deployed to front lines, as part of a buildup of forces taking place during a UN-brokered truce, which has held for more than two months, one official said.

The Two officials have said the Iran-backed Houthi militia has recruited several hundred children including as young as 10 over the past two months. In a video, a man stands in front of a blackboard in a full classroom, teaching the parts of an AK-47 rifle. He then hands it over to a boy, showing him how to cock it.

The Houthis have used what they call “summer camps” to disseminate their religious ideology and to recruit boys to fight. Such camps take place in schools and mosques around the Houthi-held part of Yemen, which encompasses the north and center of the country and Sanaa.

Child soldiers have been involved for years. Nearly 2,000 Houthi-recruited children were killed on the battlefield between January 2020 and May 2021, according to UN experts. Pro-government forces have also used child fighters but to a much lesser degree and have taken greater measures to halt the practice, according to UN and aid officials.

Overall, the UN says over 10,200 children have been killed or maimed in the war, though it is unclear how many may have been combatants.

In April, the Houthis signed what the UN children’s agency described as an “action plan” to end and prevent the practice. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the Houthis committed to identifying children in their ranks and releasing them within six months.

Four aid workers with three international organizations operating in Houthi-held areas said they observed intensified Houthi efforts to recruit children in recent weeks. The Houthis’ ranks have been thinned because of battlefield losses, especially during a nearly two-year battle for the crucial city of Marib.

They said the Houthis have pressured families to send their children to camps where they learn how to handle weapons and plant mines, in return for services including food rations from international organizations.

Two residents in Amran province said Houthi representatives came to their homes in May and told them to prepare their children for camps at the end of the school year. The residents, who are farmers, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

They said their five children, aged between 11 and 16, were taken in late May to the school where the video was taken. One father said he was told that if he didn’t send his children, his family would no longer receive food rations.

The UN panel of experts said earlier this year that the Houthis, a Zaidi-Shia religious movement turned-militia with ties with Iran, have a system to indoctrinate child soldiers, including using humanitarian aid to pressure families.

Children are taken first to centers for a month or more of religious courses. There, they are told they are joining a holy war against Jews and Christians and Arab countries that have succumbed to Western influence. Seven-year-olds are taught weapons cleaning and how to dodge rockets, the experts found.