Houthi Child Soldiers Documented in Taiz and Marib as Yemen Displacement Tops 130,000

Since the Iran-backed Houthis broke a four-year, UN-brokered truce and launched a new offensive at the start of August, the toll on Yemeni civilians has kept climbing. More than 130,000 people have been driven from their homes, according to the Guardian, as Houthi forces pushed south-west, seizing towns along the Red Sea coast including the port city of Mokha and, according to Breitbart, the volcanic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait with what Breitbart reported was Iranian assistance.

Yemeni civil society groups said in a joint statement on Saturday, September 26, that the Houthi militia is forcing children into combat, according to Arab News. The groups documented underage fighters captured in recent fighting in Taiz, along the west coast, in Marib, and in Al-Jawf.

"Children have borne the brunt of these violations through forced recruitment, being thrust into battlefields, and being deprived of their most basic rights," the groups said in the statement, which was reported by the Yemen News Agency and carried by Arab News. "The recruitment or use of children to participate in hostilities constitutes a war crime," they added.

The Houthis have faced similar accusations from the UN and human rights groups for years, dating back to when the militia first seized Sanaa in 2014, according to Arab News. No response from Houthi officials appears in the available reporting, and no war crimes charge has been filed against the group over these specific incidents.

Schools Emptying Out

The fighting has already cost one school its doors. Musaab Ibn Umayr school in Taiz has closed entirely, leaving more than 600 children without classes, according to Newsbytes, citing school principal Abdulwasea Abdu. Missile strikes near the school triggered the shutdown.

Thirteen-year-old Muneer Farie is one of the students now out of a classroom. Two weeks before speaking with the Guardian, fighting reached his village in al-Wazeyah district in Taiz so fast that his family fled with their livestock at dawn, ending up in a displacement camp in al-Shimayateen. Muneer, who wanted to be the first teacher in his farming family, now sells socks in markets outside the camp instead.

"Studying is important, but not in a situation like this where we are struggling to get enough food, water and other necessities," Muneer told the Guardian. "For now, I will keep working until the war ends."

His father, Ghaleb Farie, said he had no choice but to put his sons to work to survive camp life, and he is not optimistic about going home soon, since new arrivals keep showing up at the camp every day, the Guardian reported.

Muneer joins an estimated 3.2 million Yemeni children whose education had already been disrupted before this month's escalation, according to figures cited by both the Guardian and Al Jazeera. UNICEF put that number at just 1.8 million in 2015, the first year of Yemen's civil war, according to Al Jazeera, meaning the out-of-school population has nearly doubled over more than a decade of fighting.

Al Jazeera's reporting from Taiz, published September 9, put a face on that broader number. Eleven-year-old Hasnaa Jaber dropped out after third grade to collect plastic bottles for recycling, earning around 1,500 Yemeni rials, roughly $1 a day, to help her family. "My dream is to become a teacher," she told Al Jazeera. "I studied up to the third grade, but then I dropped out of school along with my two older brothers to help my father." Her father, Jaber Ali, 35, promised the children they could return to school next year, but told Al Jazeera that feeding the family comes first.

The Regional Stakes

The Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi Arabia and sought to block shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, according to Breitbart. Pakistan warned Iran that it may be obligated to intervene under its defense pact with Saudi Arabia if Tehran's Houthi proxies keep hitting Saudi cities and oil facilities, Breitbart reported. Separately, Breitbart reported that China privately told Iran to rein in the Houthis after Iran struck out seeking support from BRICS and Beijing this week.

None of that geopolitical pressure has stopped the fighting on the ground in Taiz, Marib, and along the west coast. The civil society groups documenting child soldiers say they're coordinating with Yemeni government bodies and international entities to get affected children care, according to Arab News, but no timeline for that assistance and no mechanism for holding the Houthis accountable for the war crimes allegation has been reported yet.