Innocence stolen for the Houthi frontlines
The number etched on the bracelet around Mohammed’s wrist gave the boy soldier comfort as missiles fired from enemy warplanes shook the earth beneath him.
For two years Mohammed, 13, fought with Yemen’s Houthi rebels against a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the US. He says he tortured and killed people and did not care whether he lived or died.
But if he died, the bracelet would guarantee his body made it home.
“When I become a martyr, they enter my number in the computer, retrieve my picture and my name, then print them with the name ‘Martyr’ underneath,” Mohammed said.
It would be pasted to the lid of his coffin for return to his family.
Mohammed was among 18 former child soldiers interviewed by the Associated Press. They described the Houthis’ efficiency in recruiting and sending boys as young as 10 to the battlefield – and disposing of their bodies when they were killed.
The Iran-backed Houthis have inducted 18,000 child soldiers into their army since the start of the war in 2014, a senior Houthi military official said.
That figure is higher than any number previously reported. The Houthis say officially that they do not recruit children and send away those who try to enlist.
Some said they joined the rebels willingly, because of promises of money or the chance to carry a weapon.
But others described being forced into the service of the Houthis after being abducted from schools or homes, or coerced into joining to have a family member released from detention.
Many man checkpoints along main roads across northern and western Yemen, AK-47s dangling from their narrow shoulders. Others are sent to the frontlines.
Riyadh, also 13, said half of the fighters he served with on the front lines in Yemen’s mountainous Sirwah district were children. Rebel officers ordered them to push forward during battles as coalition jets zoomed overhead, he said.
More than 6,000 children have died or been maimed in Yemen since the start of the war, Unicef reported in October.
A former teacher from the city of Dhamar said that at least 14 pupils from his school were recruited and died in battle.
Their pictures were placed on empty classroom seats in 2016 during the Week of the Martyr, which the Houthis celebrate each year in February. Most of them were fifth and sixth graders, the teacher said.
He said some of the dead children’s parents were Houthi leaders who sent their sons to the frontlines.
“It’s painful because they are all my children – I was their teacher,” he said. “They were taken from the school and returned in coffins.”
The Houthis and the coalition forces began peace talks in Sweden two weeks ago, but an end to the war could be far off.
Many worry about what will become of the children who fought in the Middle East’s poorest country when a peace treaty is signed.
They are all my children – I was their teacher. They were taken from the school and returned in coffins
Former teacher from Dhamar city