Yemen Children.. From School Benches To War Trenches

A human rights report documenting the children recruitment in Yemen
(between January 1 and July 30, 2017)

The Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations has documented 630 cases of recruitment of children under the legal age of 18 years as the minimum age for joining the ranks of the armed forces set by the Yemeni legislator, as well as international conventions and treaties.

Figures and statistics indicate that the Houthi militia and the former president recruited 583 children, or 93 percent, while 47 others were recruited by the regular and popular resistance forces of the legitimate government, accounting for 7 percent of the total number of documented cases of child recruitment.

The figures included in this report show that 118 children were killed and 20 others wounded while they were fighting alongside the Houthi group and the forces loyal to the former president on several fronts spread over Taiz, Marib, Sanaa, Al Jawf, Bayda, Saada and Hajja. Four children were killed and 31 others were wounded as they fought in the ranks of the legitimate government and popular resistance forces in Taiz and Marib governorates.

The team also registered 99 child soldiers who were held in the prisons of the legitimate government forces as prisoners of war after they were caught fighting in the ranks of al-Houthi and the forces loyal to the former president in Taiz, Marib, Sana›a and al-Bayda. Exchange deals for prisoners were carried out, while other captives have been handed over to their families in return for written statements and pledges to ensure they will not to fight again with «Houthi» and «Saleh.»
While the team was unable to access the prisons of the Houthi group and its ally, «Saleh», to identify and determine the number of prisoners of children recruited by the legitimate government forces and popular resistance if any.

According to statistics and figures collected by the Yemeni Coalition team to monitor human rights violations, 346 child soldiers are still fighting alongside the Houthi group and the forces loyal to the former president across the borders with Saudi Arabia and on the battle fronts in the governorates of Taiz, Marib, Sana’a, Bayda and Sa›ada), as opposed to 11 children who continue to fight with the legitimate government forces supported by popular resistance in Taiz, Al-Jawf, Sana›a and Marib.

According to documented figures and statistics, the number of children who have left school and went to fighting fronts on a voluntary or compulsory basis is (451) children, including (408) primary school students and (38) secondary school students while the number of child soldiers who did not join school education is (179) children.

During the field monitoring and collection of victims› data, the Yemeni Coalition team found that 43% of the children recruited during the reporting period belonged to families with poor living conditions. (36%) of those children to low-income families (21%) are middle-income families and those who believe that their involvement in fighting with one party or another is a result of conviction and voluntary.
The Houthi group and the forces loyal to the former president set up training camps for child recruits to prepare them for direct combat. The camps were concentrated in the provinces of Amanat Al Asima, Al-Bayda, Thamar and al-Mahweet. The courses were accompanied by other «cultural» courses which included lessons and awareness lectures which functioned as «brainwashing», based on falsifying reality and twisting facts as a means of persuading child soldiers to fight alongside them against what they call internal and external aggression.
The presence of such training camps indicates that Houthi and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh systematically trained children under the age of 18 to use all kinds of light, medium and heavy weapons and then have them deployed to the fronts to participate in actual combat directly during military operations, including the various forms installation and removal of land mines