Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Yemeni Insurgents Recruit Thousands of Children, Turn Schools into Camps | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55350252
Caption:

A boy walks as he collects toys from the rubble of a house destroyed by a recent air strike in Yemen’s northwestern city of Saada May 27, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer


Jeddah- National Yemeni army officials revealed that Houthi militia and other insurgent allies following the ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh have recruited over 48 thousand minors inside Sanaa over the past few days.

Unlike other waves of recruitment, being run across other governorates, the Sanaa youth enrollment is for establishing a score of trained military brigades which are supervised by foreigners.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, officials confirm that militias have exploited the current ceasefire in many cities and governorates to launch a mass obligatory recruitment imposed on all shades to the social spectrum.

Many schools and colleges in each of Sanaa, Al Hudaydah and Dhamar have been transformed into military barracks and others into Shi’ite places devoted to religious rituals, officials reported.

Civil buildings are being misused and transformed into training camps for militias that would be later dispatched to join battlefronts against the Yemeni national army.

Brig. Gen Abdullah al-Subaihi, leader of the 15 MICA brigade and commander of the north-eastern front of Aden, told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Houthi militias and the Republican Guard (military guard loyal to the ousted Yemeni President Saleh) – since the launch of ceasefire- have been preparing , rearranging their forces and

redistributing power on several fronts. They attempt to break through the lines of the national army.

Brig. Al-Subaihi gave emphasis to the fact that the minor members recruited are being approached in different ways, some were deluded with hatred and others were pressured by militias going after their guardian caretakers. Militias aim at exploiting youth in the upcoming period, after sparking clashes in main cities where the national army is centralized.

Brig. Al-Subaihi reassures that the national army is prepared for all possibilities, and is maintaining vigilance over all fronts.