Children Recruitment in Yemen

A Human Rights Report monitoring and documenting Child Recruitment in Yemen

From July 2014 to July 2014

As a result of its cumulative efforts exerted during the period from July 2014 to July 2018, the monitoring team of the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violation (Rasd Coalition) documented 6408 cases of child recruitment perpetrated by three key parties, which are the Houthi militia, the legitimate government forces, and Al-Qaeda) in 19 Yemeni governorates.

The Houthi armed militia was at the forefront in perpetrating one of the six most serious violations against children, which is child exploitation in armed conflicts. The Houthi militia recruited 6172 children under 18 years old. In addition, the legitimate government forces recruited 191 children. The team also documented Al-Qaeda recruitment of 45 children whose fate is still unknown at the time of writing this report.

The percentage of the children recruited by the Houthi militia is 96% of all cases of recruitment documented by the team, in comparison with 3% of children recruited by the pro-legitimate government forces, which had fierce battles with the Houthi militia for four years. Besides, only 1% is the percentage of the children recruited by Al-Qaeda, which intermittently attacks the regular army in the north and the south of the country.

Statistics documented by Rasd Coalition team indicated that 52% of all the children recruited in the Houthi militia were between 13 to 15 years old, which is the highest percentage. This is followed by the age group of 16 to 17 years old with the percentage of 41%. Next is the age group of 8 to 12 years old with the percentage of 7%, which is the lowest in the ranks of the militia.

The percentage of children between 16 and 17 years old recruited by the pro-legitimate government forces was 61%. It was the highest among the ranks of the pro-legitimate government forces. The percentage of recruited children between 13 and 15 years old recruited by the pro-legitimate government forces was 36%. 3% is the lowest percentage for the children between 8 and 12 years old recruited by the pro-legitimate government forces. On the other hand, 47% of the children recruited by Al-Qaeda were between 13-15 years old. The same percentage was also for the recruited children of 16 to17 years old. Al-Qaeda also recruited 7% of children between 8 and 12 years old according to the figures presented in Table No 1.

Rasd Coalition monitoring team could not access the details of all children recruited during the specified time as they exceed threefold of the reported number herein due to many reasons, including the obscurity and uncertainty surrounding one of the most complex issues in Yemen, especially with the absence of the accurate criteria for age determination and the fear of the child's parents which prevents them to provide the media and the human rights organizations with any information fearing that anything could happen to their children.

The other reasons are related to the policy of the violating parties, whether in their way of recruiting children and involving them in the armed conflicts, surrounded with obscurity, vigilance and caution, or through their harsh treatment with any activity by a human rights activist or a media professional who attempts to expose their violations. These methods used by the Houthi militia are no less onerous than the crime of recruiting children and sending them to an inevitable death.