Houthis forcing Sana’a youth to join their ranks

Ahmed Adel

The Iran-backed Houthi militia maintains its attempts to stoke tensions in Yemen, even after the implementation of a truce by the Arab Coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The militia’s latest attempt in this regard is to expand the enforced recruitment of Yemeni youth within its ranks.

The Arab Coalition declared the truth in response to a request by the United Nations to give the chance to Yemeni medical professionals to focus on the fight against the coronavirus.

The truce started on April 9. Since then, however, the Houthis committed over 2,300 violations of it.

Enforced recruitment

The Houthis have been forcibly recruiting Yemeni youth within their ranks since May 3, according to the Yemeni news site al-Mashhad.

It said the Houthis would send the new recruits to the frontlines soon.

The Houthi militia asked local leaders in Yemeni capital Sana’a to prepare four new recruits from each street and alley in the Yemeni capital. It said it would train the new recruits in preparation for sending them to the frontline.

The new move comes after the Houthis sustained major human losses, especially in Ma’rib, al-Jawf and Al Bayda’.

The militia also kidnapped dozens of youth whose parents refused to send them to the battlefield.

The enforcement recruitment of Yemenis by the militia comes as ordinary Yemenis refuse to join the Iran-backed group which works to implement an Iranian agenda in Yemen.

Condemnation

Yemeni Information Minister Muammar al-Eriani accused the Houthis on May 4 of forcing youth in Sana’a to join its ranks in order to send them to the frontlines.

He said the enforced recruitment of youth comes after the Houthis sustained huge losses in a number of Yemeni provinces.

Eriani wrote on Twitter that this enforced recruitment of Yemeni youth amounts to mass killing.

The Houthi, he added, use the new recruits as human shields in the battlefield.