Houthis recruit children despite pact
CAIRO — In the video, a man stands in front of a blackboard in a full classroom, teaching the parts of an AK-47 rifle. He then hands it over to a boy, showing him how to cock it.
Other children crowd around, many who appear to be no older than 10, asking for their turn. The video, leaked online this month, provides a rare window into child soldier indoctrination by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Local residents confirmed that it was filmed in recent weeks in Yemen’s rebel-held province of Amran, northwest of the capital, Sanaa.
Despite an agreement with the United Nations in April to halt the practice, the Houthis continue to recruit children into the military ranks to fight in the country’s grinding civil war, Houthi officials, aid workers and residents said.
Two Houthi officials said the rebels recruited several hundred children including as young as 10 over the past two months. Those children have been deployed to front lines, as part of a buildup of forces taking place during a U.N.brokered truce, which has held for more than two months, one official said.
The officials, both hardliners within the Houthi movement, said they see nothing wrong with the practice, arguing that boys from 10 or 12 are considered men.
“Those are not children. They are true men, who should defend their nation against the Saudi, American aggression, and defend the Islamic nation,” one of them said.
The Houthis have used what they call “summer camps” to disseminate their religious ideology and to recruit boys to fight. Such camps take place in schools and mosques around the Houthi-held part of Yemen, which encompasses the north and center of the country and Sanaa.
Yemen’s conflict erupted in 2014 when the Houthis descended from their northern enclave and took over Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee to the south. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power, waging a destructive air campaign and arming anti-Houthi forces.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including more than 14,500 civilians and has plunged the country into near famine, creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Child soldiers have been involved for years. Nearly 2,000 Houthirecruited children were killed on the battlefield between January 2020 and May 2021, according to U.N. experts. Progovernment forces have also used child fighters but to a much lesser degree and have taken greater measures to halt the practice, according to U.N and aid officials.
Overall, the United Nations says over 10,200 children have been killed or maimed in the war, though it is unclear how many may have been combatants.
In April, the rebels signed what the U.N. children’s agency described as an “action plan” to end and prevent the practice. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the rebels committed to identifying children in their ranks and releasing them within six months.