Today (Saturday), the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations (Rasd Coalition) accused the Houthi militia of committing 248 incidents of recruitment and exploitation of children in 10 Yemeni governorates during the period from August 1, 2022 AD to January 31, 2023, explaining in its report entitled (Children Not Soldiers) that The governorates of Ibb and Amran topped the recruitment process with more than 100 recruits.
The report reveals that Yemeni children have been subjected to widespread violations of their rights guaranteed by international conventions as a result of the conflict, including changing their beliefs and national identity, forced recruitment, sexual exploitation and other acts that can be described as human trafficking.
The report said that recruitment operations increased significantly in the year 2022, despite the militia's signing of a plan to end child recruitment with the United Nations, indicating that the largest number of recruits died during hostilities.
The report stated that the Rasd coalition team was able to document the killing of 142 children, 82 children are still recruiting, 13 children have returned to their homes, 5 of them are detained, and 4 of them are unknown.
The report added: "The Houthis attracted children through a series of supervisors and mobilizers, and used a lot of money for them to facilitate their work in influencing children, and deliberately changed the educational curricula for children, which had a clear effect on pushing them into recruitment, and used propaganda and the media to create an aura on them." The dead child soldiers, especially during their funerals, which motivates their peers to recruit, out of sympathy and revenge for them, in addition to the mobilizing speech of its leaders and the production of many programs and media materials to motivate children to fight.
The report described the leaders of the Houthi militia as "war criminals" for their effective contribution to the forced recruitment of children under the age of 15, the commission of serious crimes against children during the armed conflict, and the violation of the rules of war and human rights law.
Ahmad Al-Shameri (Jeddah) @a_shmeri
