Houthis deploying Yemen’s children in battlefields

Fatma Abdelghani

The Iran-backed Houthi militia recruited 10,300 children within its ranks since 2014, an international NGO has said.

The militia uses a set of complex measures for the recruitment of the children by force and deploying them in areas it controls in different parts of Yemen, the Euro‑Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor added.

It warned against the ramifications of the recruitment of children by the Yemeni militia and called on the international community to take action to prevent it.

The Euro‑Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor mentioned in a recent report, titled “Militarizing Childhood”, the names of 111 children killed in battles in different parts of Yemen in July and August 2020.

It said the Houthis use the schools and educational institutions in the recruitment of the children and drawing them to its ranks.

The NGO said the Iran-backed militia uses an educational system that incites violence and promotes its ideology.

Houthis go to the schools and deliver lectures to explain their ideology and ideas to the children, the Euro‑Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said.

It added that the Houthis applied a compulsory recruitment system as of 2018.

The NGO noted that the militia has 52 camps where it offers training to thousands of children and teenagers in the different Yemeni provinces.

It said children and teenagers spend a month in the training camps before they are deployed in the battlefields.