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Amnesty Accuses Houthis of Recruiting Children for Fighting | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Yemen, Amnesty International, Houthi militias, Child soldiers


London- Amnesty International revealed in a statement Houthi militia’s involvement in recruiting children and forcing them to fight in battlefields.

The statement issued by the organization said that new evidence has emerged of how the Houthi armed group is actively recruiting boys as young as 15 to fight as child soldiers on the front lines of the conflict in Yemen.

Amnesty International issued the statement after speaking to the families of three boys targeted this month by the appalling practice that violates international law.

The families also confirmed the recruitment of a fourth local boy.

The London-based organization mentioned that family members and an eyewitness told it that the four boys, aged between 15 and 17, were recruited by fighters of the Houthi insurgent group, also known as Ansarullah locally, in the capital, Sana’a.

They only found out that their children had been taken away after being alerted by local residents, who described seeing them and as many as six other children boarding a bus at a local Houthi center in mid-February.

“It is appalling that Houthi militants are taking children away from their parents and their homes, stripping them of their childhood to put them in the line of fire where they could die,” said Samah Hadid, Deputy Director at Amnesty International’s Beirut regional office.

“This is a shameful and outrageous violation of international law. Houthis must immediately end all forms of recruitment of children under 18 and release all children within their ranks. The international community should support the rehabilitation and reintegration of demobilized children into the community.”

The organization added in its statement that the families of the four boys taken in mid-February later received news that their children were at an unnamed location on the Yemeni-Saudi border.