Child soldiers of Yemen: The youthful faces of boys, as young as 10, fighting in the conflict

Toby Meyjes

Yemeni children hold automatic rifles as they join grown up relatives in a tribal gathering organised by the Shiite Huthi movement (Picture: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Children do not start wars but they still fight in them.
In Yemen, children as young as 10 are picking up weapons that are almost as tall as them to fight in a conflict they could never fully comprehend.

It is a modern day tragedy but one that doesn’t look like going away fast.
Earlier this year, UNICEF estimated that a third of the soldiers fighting a brutal civil war in the Middle Eastern country are children.
It is a shocking truth that is not isolated to either side in the conflict either.

Yemeni children, one holding a weapon, sit in a car boot during a march of supporters of the Shiite Huthi movement (Picture: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Both the Houthi rebels and militias fighting on behalf of the internationally recognised President Abdullah Mansour Hadi have recruited children.
Nor does the child death toll stop at those holding weapons.
UNICEF estimates that hundreds of thousands in the country are at risk of malnutrition, and millions are without access to healthcare or clean water.

A Yemeni boy chews Qat, a mild drug used daily by many Yemenis, during a march in support of the Shiite Huthi movement (Picture: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)

The country is the midst of a U.N-brokered cease fire ahead of peace talks in Kuwait on April 18 but even if a peace was brokered it would take a long time to pick up the pieces.
The nation has been decimated since it descended in to turmoil in September 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels overran capital Sanaa.
The cities of Aden, Taiz and Sa’ada remain wrecked while many others lay extensively damaged.

A young Yemeni fighter loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi poses in the Sirwah area, in Marib province (Picture: NABIL HASSANNABIL HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images)

The impact on children is vast.
It is estimated some 900 were killed last year alone, with child recruitment increasing five fold, but UNICEF believes that is only the tip of the iceberg.
What the future will hold is difficult to tell with one fatality already reported since the cease fire began.
But, either way, UNICEF has called for an end to child recruitment.
This isn’t something it thinks can wait.

Young Yemeni fighters loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi stand next to a burnt tank in the Sirwah area (Picture: AFP PHOTO / NABIL HASSANNABIL HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Why do child soldiers fight?

In Yemeni culture, you are considered a man at the age of 14 or 15 and part of manhood is picking up a weapon.
Many are used on checkpoints but also feature on the frontline too with more and more dying.

A Yemeni boy loyal to the Shiite Huthi movement holds his gun during a tribal gathering (Picture: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)

A history of the conflict

A coaltition, comprised of Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, launched its campaign against the Houthis in March last year, lending support to the internationally-backed government in exile.
Since then, more than 9,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s civil war, including more than 3,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.
The fighting has also displaced 2.4 million people.

An Armed Yemeni boy loyal to the Shiite Huthi movement attends a tribal gathering against al-Qaeda militants (Picture: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Stories from the mouths of children

As part of its report on the conflict, UNICEF included excerpts from children caught up in the conflict.

An Armed Yemeni boy loyal to the Shiite Huthi movement poses for a picture (Picture: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Elham Ghalib, a 23-year-old mother and nurse who fled the city of Taiz. She lost her three-year-old daughter when her parents’ house was bombed.

I had no time to take anything, all I had were the clothes on me and a ring. I just ran on the street holding my children. I saw people getting in a car so I jumped on with my children.
I didn’t even know where it was going.

Yemenis dig graves on April 4, 2015 to bury the victims of a reported airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition (Picture: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Jehad, sister of 15-year old Mohammed who was killed in violence in the Ma’alla district, in the southern city of Aden.

He had big dreams. He deserved to live to fulfill them. But he also had no choice with all the pressure around him to take up weapons and go to war.
A child, inexperienced in fighting, was dragged to such a cruel end.

Houthi militants after they captured the headquarters of the Sixth Military Zone in 2014. (Picture: Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Abdullah Nawar, 13, trapped with his family in Aden

I feel scared…very scared. Everything around me is frightening. My mother’s sad face and her tears are what torture me the most.
I am scared that all of us will die in this dark basement.

A Yemeni boy looks at graffiti sprayed on a wall depicting a child soldier walking with evil 9Picture: EPA/YAHYA ARHAB)

Umm Mojeeb, a community volunteer in Toban district, Lahej governorate, speak of Al-Shahyed Abdulalim primary school, which had more than 500 children before it was destroyed.

Sometimes I still hear children’s laughter in the school yard. Then I realise that I’m just imagining. There are no more children in this school

A Yemeni boy checks the damage following a mortar shell attack on Taez (Picture: AHMAD AL-BASHA/AFP/Getty Images)

Yemeni supporters of the Shiite Huthi movement chant slogans during a march in the capital Sanaa (Picture: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)