Boy soldiers lured into war
Poor families turn kids into breadwinners
SANAA, YEMEN — Abdullah Ali’s 15-year-old son disappeared from home one morning three months ago. A week later, the boy called his horrified family to say he had joined the Shiite insurgents known as Houthis — becoming one of a growing number of underage soldiers fighting in Yemen’s civil war.
“He’s just a child. He’s only in the ninth grade,” Ali, 49, a civil servant who lives in the city of Taiz, said recently. “He should be at school learning, not fighting.”
Hundreds and possibly thousands of boys are fighting in Yemen’s conflict, according to rights groups and aid workers. Many are between the ages of 13 and 16, the groups say. Experts cite worsening poverty in the Arabian Peninsula country as a major reason children are joining armed groups.
The child soldiers are found in nearly every faction battling in Yemen. According to some estimates, boys under 18 form nearly a third of the Houthi rebel force’s approximately 25,000 fighters.
Over the past year, the Houthis have swept southward from their northern strongholds, taking control of the capital, Sanaa, and besieging the southern port city of Aden. Since March, a coalition of mainly Arab states led by Saudi Arabia has been launching airstrikes to push back the rebels and restore President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power. As the war has intensified, dozens of child fighters are thought to have been killed.
Julien Harneis, the Yemen representative for UNICEF, said that warring factions, including the country’s al-Qaida affiliate and southern separatists, appear to be increasing recruitment of minors, partly by offering money, regular meals and other benefits.
“Becoming a fighter is seen as a way to make money to survive for those children who come from vulnerable backgrounds,” Harneis said. “And this is happening in all groups ... in every corner of the country.”
Food and fuel have become scarce for many of Yemen’s 25 million residents because of the battles and an air and naval blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition, according to the UN and aid groups. The turmoil has forced most schools to shut, which has enlarged the pool of potential child recruits.
Jalal al-Shami, a humanrights activist in Yemen who studies the issue of underage soldiers, said the worsening humanitarian situation is forcing more families to turn children into breadwinners.
“You have a rising problem now where fathers refuse to let their sons return from the fighting because the families have got dependent on the money that this brings in,” he said. In some cases, he said, a boy can earn more than $100 US a month — a sizable sum in a country where, even before the current unrest, half the population lived on $2 a day or less.
Shami said that the longterm risks of participating in combat can be especially damaging to children. Psychological trauma can haunt them well into adulthood, causing depression and antisocial behaviour, he added.
The use of child soldiers began to increase in Yemen during wars between the government and the Houthis starting in 2004.
Then, in 2007, the government signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international accord that establishes 18 as the minimum age for young people to be conscripted or participate directly in hostilities as soldiers. Last year, Yemen also entered into an agreement with the UN to halt the recruitment of children by the armed forces.
But the Houthis toppled Hadi’s U.S.-backed government in February. Their offensive is prompting anti-Houthi forces to increasingly turn to child reinforcements to fight back, said Nadwa al-Dawsari, who is affiliated with the Project on Middle East Democracy in Washington.