Houthi recruits children in Yemen, using women as human shields

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates signed Friday a number of agreements to ease the delivery of humanitarian aid to the different provinces in Yemen, including those still under the control of the Iran-backed Houthi militia.

Efforts made by both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to offer humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people are coming under the spotlight, amid praise by the legitimate government of Yemen and the Yemeni people.

The terrorist Houthi militia did, meanwhile, everything possible to shirk its humanitarian responsibilities toward people in the areas under its control.

Apart from giving residents in these areas a hard time, the Houthis try to generate money in them by imposing taxes, ransacking banks and confiscating public funds and properties.

The Houthis are actively recruiting children and using them as human shields, a gross violation of international and human laws.

The militiamen use humanitarian aid arriving in the areas they occupy to strengthen their grip in these areas, according to Abdel Raqib Fatah, the local administration minister in the legitimate Yemeni government and the head of Yemen's Higher Humanitarian Committee.

The militia also, he added, turned ports in the cities it occupies, including the port of the city of al-Hodeidah, into military ones.

It uses deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the same cities to prevent their liberation, Fatah said.

The United Arab Emirates has already started implementing a comprehensive humanitarian and development plan throughout the whole of Yemen.