‘They train us how to shoot’: How Yemeni children are recruited as Houthi foot soldiers

Ali Mahmood IN ADEN and Sophia Yan 

It was an offer too good to refuse. 

A month or so of food rations during a time of war led Ayman, 14, to a summer camp on the edge of Yemen’s dusty port city of Hodeidah. 

There was also the promise of teaching, albeit under the religious zealotry of the Houthi rebels who controlled the camp. 

But it wasn’t long until Ayman and his classmates had a rifle in their hands. 

Ayman was in one of thousands of camps set up in Yemen where young boys are coached to join the ranks of the Houthis. 

For 40 days, he and scores of other teenage boys were drilled in warfare, their ears slowly adjusting to the loud bangs and pops of various weaponry. 

“They used to train us, how to shoot, and how to safeguard the camp and control checkpoints,” Ayman said. 

Eventually, one of Ayman’s friends did so well that he was handed a machine gun. 

“But they refused to give me an AK-47 rifle because I was bad at shooting,” Ayman said. 

The Houthis, a rebel group financed and armed by Iran, has since expanded to become a significant fighting force whose recent missile attacks in the Red Sea have threatened to tip the Israel-Hamas war into a broader conflict in the Middle East. 

Attacks launched by the Houthis have disrupted global shipping, as vessels have largely halted sailing through the Red Sea, a key waterway through which nearly 15 per cent of international trade passes each year. 

A US-led coalition has sought to patrol the Red Sea since December, and Western military airstrikes have targeted Houthi positions, including areas believed to be missile launch sites and weapons storage bunkers. 

However, there’s no sign the Houthis will stop anytime soon, with senior leaders vowing to continue their attacks in solidarity with Hamas – also backed by Iran – and to inflict “punishment” on the US for its support of Israel. 

The Houthis, whose rebels fought a years-long civil war and succeeded in overthrowing the Yemeni government a decade ago, have gained control over much of the country and rule it with an iron fist. 

Numerous human rights organisations have highlighted how the Houthis use the judicial system to silence dissent. 

At times, Houthi-controlled courts have issued death sentences and publicly executed anyone who opposes their rule, including politicians, journalists and military personnel. 

But perhaps one of the most egregious ways the Houthis have sought to stay in power, human rights organisations say, is by exploiting children to become foot soldiers.

Between March 2015 and Sept 2022, Unicef verified 3,995 cases of children in Yemen who were recruited into fighting, though figures are likely much higher. One UN report said 2,000 had died on the battlefield between January 2020 and May 2021 alone. 

Other human rights organisations, such as the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and SAM for Rights and Liberties, estimate that more than 10,000 children have been forcibly recruited into fighting. 

The UN believes some children as young as seven are forced to clean guns. 

The Houthis “exploited the dire living conditions families living in areas under their control suffer to force them to send their children into summer camps, and then to the frontlines”, said Abdo Al-Hothifi, director of Mayyun, a human rights organisation in Yemen. 

“The recruited children first receive ideological courses in the summer camps to ensure loyalty,” he said. 

“Then they are transferred to military and combat training camps to receive training on different types of weapons.” 

Estimates of how many children have been to these camps are tough, given the shadowy nature of militant activity. 

But Mayyun estimates that hundreds of thousands of boys and girls have filtered through the nearly 9,000 “camps” in operation in areas of Yemen under Houthi control. 

Families are “deceived” into giving up their children, as Houthi militants promise to distribute food and money for those who send their sons and daughters, Mr Al-Hothifi said. 

For Ayman’s family, as is the case with many other families struggling to make ends meet in war-torn Yemen, this was an offer they couldn’t refuse. 

After his father was killed in Yemen’s civil war, “my family had nobody to feed them”, Ayman said. 

“My mother told me to join the summer camp because they give food baskets to participants.” 

Wael, 13, ended up in a Houthi camp given a similar incentive. His teacher convinced Wael’s father to send him out given the promise of food rations for at least a month. 

“My father told me to go,” said Wael, whose days at “camp” were divided into two sections. In the mornings, militants would impart political and religious ideology alleged to come from one of the group’s key leaders, the late Hussein Al-Houthi. 

Tales told range from Al-Houthi’s brave fights against the US and Israel, as well as the importance of “jihad” – or struggle – against the West for its anti-Muslim rhetoric. 

“Their [the West’s] ultimate goal is to occupy the Muslim countries and erase the principles of Islam, to spread their immoral beliefs,” said Wael. “They taught us to chant specific slogans calling for ‘jihad’.” 

Among the chants are “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam”, a UN investigation found. 

In the evenings, Wael said he and others were given weapons training, and asked to use their new skills on the spot as they were tasked with guarding the camp overnight. 

As part of the wider indoctrination, Wael said he and the others were isolated in the camps. 

“They prevented us from contacting people outside the camps – even our families,” he said.

Back in Hodeidah, where Ayman attended “camp” – and one of the locations from which the Houthis have been firing their missiles into the Red Sea – fear hangs in the air as many Yemeni residents worry about war escalating. 

Some are choosing to flee into southern areas of the city still under the control of the legitimate government of Yemen. 

It’s perhaps not a surprise that Yemenis are concerned as regional tensions worsen. Earlier this month, the US government re-designated the Houthis as a global terrorist organisation, having taken them off the list in Feb 2021 to make it easier to get humanitarian aid into Yemen. 

The US and UK militaries have twice bombed multiple targets in eight locations believed to be used by the Houthis. The strikes - backed by Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands - have been the largest bombardment to date in efforts to pressure the rebel group to back down. 

“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, but let us reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership,” said a joint statement of the six allied nations. 

“We will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats.” 

* The Telegraph