September Net
The Iran-backed Houthi terrorist militia committed 21,342 violations against children in Yemen, killing 9,914 and injuring 6,417 others since 2015, two rights group revealed.
The joint working paper, titled “Yemen’s Children Between Killing and Recruitment” from the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms and the Association Maonah for Human Rights and Migration on the sidelines of the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council documented a range of abuses beyond casualties. These include 598 recorded cases of abduction and arrest of children—most to extort their families—across 17 provinces, and 51 cases of rape linked to Houthi leaders and supervisors. Furthermore, the report revealed the militia has forcibly recruited over 30,000 children between the ages of 12 and 14.
The report found that sectarian indoctrination by the militia led recruited children to carry out over 314 attacks against their own relatives, resulting in 189 killings and 125 injuries. It stated that the actual figures for all crimes are likely higher due to the Houthi’s repression of media and concealment of facts in areas under its control.
The militia’s actions have created a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, leaving over 17 million children in need of aid. The report confirmed the Houthi coup has deprived thousands of children of their fathers, who were either killed or imprisoned. It has also forced 2.5 million children out of school after converting educational facilities into military bases and pushed over 2 million children into an unsafe labor market due to the economic collapse.
The two organizations called on the international community to force the Houthi militia to respect international law. They demanded the UN blacklist involved Houthi leaders, open an independent investigation, and refer war criminals to the judiciary.