Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused armed groups in Yemen especially the Houthi militant group and Al-Qaeda of recruitment and deployment of children into battles.
The Houthi group has intensified its recruitment, training, and deployment of children in violation of international law, the statement said.
The organization said the Houthis have increasingly used children as scouts, guards, runners, and fighters, with some children being wounded and killed, since they took over the capital Sanaa in September.
“As fighting rages in Yemen, the Houthis have ramped up their recruitment of children,” said Fred Abrahams, special adviser at Human Rights Watch. “Commanders from the Houthis and other armed groups should stop using children or risk prosecution for war crimes.”
According to UNICEF, children with the Houthis and other armed groups comprise up to a third of all fighters in Yemen, it said, while elaborating that armed groups recruited at least 140 children between March 26 and April 24, 2015, alone.
The Houthis first give children ideological and Zaidi Shia Islamic training for at least a month, followed by military training at one of their bases across the country, it said.
Based on interviews, children said they were not paid but were given food and qat, it added.
Though the Houthi militant group says child recruits don't participate in combat, the organization documented cases of child soldiers.
All child recruits are below 18; mostly between 14-16, it said, while pointing out that there were also 7-year recruits.
The organization said the Houthis have a long record of using child soldiers and that it has reported on the issue since 2009.
According to the annual list of violations against children in armed conflict compiled by the UN secretary-general, published most recently last May, Yemen’s national armed forces, including the now dismantled First Armored Division, the AQAP, and other armed groups have used children in their forces.
Last year, the Yemeni government signed an action plan with the UN to end recruitment of children by state forces, aimed to achieve the withdrawal of all children from government security forces, their reintegration into their local communities, and an end to further recruitment.