Yemen's children paying the price of the Houthis' ambitions
The children of Yemen pay with their lives for the ambitions of the Iran-backed Houthi militia in this restive Arab state.
Although the Houthis
vowed previously that they would stop recruiting children, they continue to
follow this policy on a wide scale. This is causing the death of hundreds of
children and the injury of thousands of others.
Children surviving the
war will be badly in need of long-term rehabilitation to help them get over the
trauma of the experiences they witnessed in the past years.
Yemeni Information
Minister Muammar al-Ariani called on the United Nations and the international
community to take action to protect the children of Yemen.
He asked them to put
pressure on the Houthis to stop what he described as the "massive
cleansing" of the children of Yemen.
The minister of
information accused the Houthis of recruiting the children in the areas they
control. Al-Ariani even lashed out at the international community for staying
silent while this crime was happening in his country.
He estimated the number
of children recruited within the ranks of the Houthi militia since the Houthis
staged their coup in Yemen in 2014 at tens of thousands.
He said the Houthis took
these children from their homes and their schools, using multiple methods,
including threats.
They pushed them into the
war inferno, al-Ariani wrote on Twitter.
He added that the
children had ended up either dead, injured or waiting to face any of these two
fates.
