Yemen: 100 Child Soldiers Killed in Houthi Ranks During September

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The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights has called on mothers and fathers in areas controlled by the Houthi group to protect their children and prevent their recruitment or involvement in armed conflict, emphasizing the serious violations affecting children and the rules of international humanitarian law.

The ministry explained in a statement that it has documented the killing of at least 100 children recruited by the Houthi group during the clashes in September, noting cases of abduction and recruitment of minors through Houthi mobilization centers and summer courses to send them to the front lines.

The Yemeni government held Houthi leaders legally responsible for exploiting children, calling on international and UN organizations to exert pressure to stop the recruitment of children and support programs for their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

It pointed out that the recent armed escalation witnessed a notable presence of recruited children among the dead, in video clips of prisoners, considering this evidence of the group's continued exploitation of children and pushing them to the front lines, in violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

The Ministry of Human Rights reported that it has documented cases of kidnapping and luring children in provinces controlled by the Houthis, transporting them to mobilization camps and then to the front lines, before some of them return to their families as lifeless bodies.

Families have warned about the recruitment methods that they say the group uses under the guise of cultural courses, summer centers, and general mobilization, or by exploiting poverty and need and pressuring parents. They also called on sheikhs, dignitaries, educators, and social figures to take action to protect children, reject their recruitment, and work on returning those who have been recruited to their families and school seats.