Section 4: Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers

Mwatana documented at least 1117 children recruited or used for military purposes in 2018, through 689 observations and interviews. Of the children Mwatana identified, 72% were recruited or used by the armed group Ansar Allah (Houthis), with cases primarily in Sana’a, Sa’ada, Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, and Hajjah governorates. Emirati proxy forces (the Security Belt Forces and Hadhrami Elite Forces) were responsible for 17% of cases, in Abyan, Lahj, Aden, and Hadramaut governorates. Forces loyal to President Hadi and affiliated “popular resistance” groups were responsible for 11% of the cases, in Al Bayda, Al Dhale, Al Hudaydah, and Abyan governorates. Extremist groups recruited and used two children in Al Bayda and Hadramaut governorates. In an apparent new, and deeply concerning, development, Mwatana also documented cases of Ansar Allah (Houthis) using young girls in searches and inspections during their raids on homes, as well as to organize events for mobilization and recruitment of fighters.

Parties on all sides of the conflict in Yemen continue to recruit children and use them for combat or security purposes, for example having them serve in security checkpoints or provide logistics support for military operations. In this regard, parties to the conflict are benefitting from the continued deterioration of the humanitarian and economic situation in the country—children are not going to school and become more vulnerable to military enlistment and mobilization.

Yemeni children are being recruited for military purposes at terrifying rates. Despite international legal protections for children during armed conflicts, children in Yemen still face a constant threat from the parties to the conflict, who continue to recruit children and use them in an environment of total impunity. Children recruited are at risk of being killed, maimed, sexually assaulted, or subjected to other forms of abuse. The warring parties have shown little, if any, interest in taking serious measures to protect children, one of the most affected groups, from the harms of war.

Legal Framework

International humanitarian law prohibits the recruitment or use of children by armed groups or armed forces. The recruitment of children under the age of 15 years old—either by drafting them or by allowing them to volunteer into an armed group or the armed forces—or using them to participate in combat operations is a war crime.[1] Commanders who knew or should have known and took no effective action can be held criminally liable as a matter of command responsibility. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, to which Yemen is a party, sets 18 as the minimum age for any participation in armed conflict by armed forces or armed groups.[2]

Article 45 of the Yemeni Child Rights Law of 2000 prohibits the use of children in conflict and calls for an end to recruitment of any person under the age of 18.

Case Studies

  • One evening in September 2018, Ansar Allah (Houthis) trained at least 16 children, all under the age of 17, at a camp in the town square of Hawrah in Hajjah governorate.
  • One child who had been recruited by the 3rdGiants Brigade (Al Amaliqah), aligned with the Coalition and fighting on the Western Coast, told Mwatana that he and his peers were tasked with distributing food to soldiers. He stressed the importance of keeping his name hidden: “If the command know that I gave you this information, they will take me to jail. This is my source of income, and there is nothing that I can do about it.”[3]
  • Two children recruited by forces loyal to President Hadi were injured in Al Jawf governorate, struck by shrapnel from a mortar shell while fighting on the frontlines in Al Matoun district. One died from his injuries.
  • In separate incidents in September and November 2018, at least 20 children recruited by Ansar Allah (Houthis) were used to secure public Ansar Allah events.

[1] The Rome Statutes of the International Criminal Court, adopted in Rome, drafted on 17 July 1998, Article 8, Paragraph 26

[2] The International Committee of the Red Cross, Children protected under international humanitarian law, published on 29 October 2010, available at: https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/war-and-law/protected-persons/children/overview-protected-children.htm

[3] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with the child who was recruited, 29 August 2018