Houthis committed 66,000 violations against children in Yemen, rights group says

Yemen’s Houthi group has committed about 65,971 violations against children, the Yemeni Network for Rights, and Freedoms revealed yesterday.

According to Anadolu, the organisation revealed that it had documented these violations between January 2015 and August 2019. The Houthis took control of parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014, ousting the internationally recognised government.

“The violations committed by the Houthis included killings, recruitment, kidnappings, and detention in 17 out of 22 Yemeni governorates,” the report said.

It stated that 7,120 children were killed, including 79 infants, due to bombing, sniper attacks, landmines, and as a result of the blockade.

The report also documented 465 detentions and kidnappings in 16 out of 22 governorates, as well as the displacement of 43,608 children.

Meanwhile, it revealed that 12,341 children under the age of 14 were recruited by the Houthis and forced to take part in the fighting.

The Houthis have not commented on the report.

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Impoverished Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa. The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

The war, in which the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) back the Saudi-led coalition, has killed more than 100,000 people and pushed millions to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations (UN) official data.