United Nations: Nearly 2,000 children recruited by Yemen’s Houthis died on the battlefield between January 2020 and May 2021, UN experts said in a new report, and Iranian-backed militias encouraging youth to fight Continuing to organize camps and courses.
In a report circulated to the UN Security Council on Saturday, experts said they had investigated schools and some summer camps in a mosque where the Houthis spread their ideology and worked with Yemen’s internationally recognized government for seven years. The war sought to recruit children, which is supported by the Coalition to restore legitimacy in Yemen.
“Children are instructed to chant Houthi slogans ‘Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam’,” the four-member panel of experts said. “At one camp, children as young as 7 were taught to clean weapons and avoid rockets.”
Experts said they documented 10 cases where children were told they would be enrolled in cultural courses or were already taking such courses, nine cases where humanitarian aid was provided or families were “only on this basis”. but denied whether their children had participated in the fighting or to teachers on the basis of whether they taught Houthi courses,” and a case where sexual violence was committed against a child who underwent military training. Was.
The panel said it found a list of 1,406 children recruited by the Houthis who died on the battlefield in 2020 and a list of 562 children recruited by insurgents who died on the battlefield between January and May 2021.
They were “between 10 and 17 years of age,” experts said, and “a significant number” of them died in Amran, Dhamar, Hajjah, Hodeida, Ibb, Saada and Sana’a.
Yemen has been engulfed in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis captured Sanaa, the capital and much of the northern part of the country, forcing the government to flee south, then to Saudi Arabia. It formed the Coalition of Arab States, now called the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, in 2015, which seeks to restore the government to power.
The conflict has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, leaving millions suffering from a lack of food and medical care and pushing the country to the brink of famine.
In recent weeks, attacks have escalated after gains by pro-government forces in the contested province of Marib as a result of moving the front lines on the ground, which the Houthis have been trying to take for more than a year. Coalition airstrikes followed two Houthi strikes inside the United Arab Emirates using missiles and drones, killing three in attacks near Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The panel of experts said the Houthis continued their air and sea attacks on Saudi Arabia, with targets close to the border at greatest risk and usually several weeks a week in conjunction with unmanned drones and short-range artillery rockets. repeatedly attacked. But militias also continue to conduct strikes deep inside Saudi Arabia, using long-range drones as well as cruise and ballistic missiles, he said.
In the Red Sea, experts said, waterborne improvised explosive devices were used to attack commercial ships anchored in Saudi ports, in some cases more than 1,000 kilometers from Yemeni shores.
“It seems almost certain that those devices were launched from a ‘mothership’ that could tow the devices for most of the journey,” he said.
“The purpose of these attacks was primarily political, i.e. the Houthis want to induce Riyadh to accept a political settlement beneficial to them,” the experts said. “This is in contrast to the use of missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles within Yemen, which are often aimed at achieving maximum lethality.”
The 303-page report said violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in the Yemen conflict are “the norm rather than the exception”, citing arbitrary arrests and detentions, forced disappearances, torture and abuse “committed by all parties”. has gone.
Migrants continue to be particularly vulnerable to abuse and human rights violations, experts said, and in Houthi-controlled areas, detention and judicial systems are used “to suppress any protests or perceived dissent, particularly exclusively by journalists, women and religious minorities.”
The annual UN report, covering the year until December 5, 2021, said the Houthis and paramilitary forces loyal to them continue to violate the UN arms embargo.
“Most types of uncrewed aerial vehicles, waterborne improvised explosive devices and short-range rockets are assembled in Houthi-controlled areas using locally available materials as well as commercial components, such as engines and electronics, which are sourced from abroad using a complex network of intermediaries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia,” the panel said.
Experts said evidence suggests that weapons components and other military equipment are being supplied to Houthi forces on the ground by “individuals and entities based in Oman.”
Oman, which borders Yemen, remains neutral in the war and is the only regional country other than Iran to maintain ties with the Houthis.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of supplying weapons to the Houthis in violation of an arms embargo. Experts reported the seizure of some Iranian-made weapons, but Iran denied any involvement in providing weapons to the militias.
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