Yemen’s children tortured, raped in Houthi recruitment camps

Ahmed Adel

The head of the Yemeni Women Empowerment Foundation, Zaafaran Zayed, has made a warning cry over the grave violations committed against children in the recruitment camps of the Houthi militia.

Zayed, also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights, referred in a video on her Twitter account on October 1 to ‘unbelievable violations’ inside the camps.

She said crimes committed against children in the camps included beating, humiliation, torture, starvation and rape.

She said the residents of the cities controlled by the Houthis are tight-lipped about the crimes committed against their children for fear of being shamed.

Shameful reaction

International response to the Houthi crimes encourages these crimes even more.

The Yemeni news site, al-Mashhad, quoted some human rights defenders as warning that the families of abused children had known about their rape, but they remain silent for fear of shame.

They added that these families believe this shame would follow them wherever they go if they reveal the calamities of their children inside the Houthi recruitment camps.

The same defenders noted that the Houthis take the children to battlefronts after sexually abusing them.

“This puts the children in grave danger,” the human rights defenders said.

They cited a rise in the number of funeral ceremonies for children in the areas controlled by the Houthi militia.

Around 640 children were forcibly recruited within the ranks of the Houthi militia so far.

A large number of other children were arrested and executed by the militia’s extrajudicial courts for rejecting to fight within its ranks.

Most of the victims are aged between 13 and 17.

Some of the children operate what is known as the Military Media Apparatus of the Houthi militia, the human rights defenders said.

Some of these children were killed and buried in the past period, they added.