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13 of 20 Indians reported killed in Yemen are alive, 7 missing: MEA

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sanaa_yemen

New Delhi: At least seven out of 20 Indian crew members are missing after their boats came under aerial bombardment while plying between Somalia and Yemen, External Affairs Ministry said today.

Disputing reports that 20 Indian nationals were killed in air strikes by Saudi-led coalition forces at Yemen’s Hodeidah port, the MEA said 13 Indians crew members “are alive and 7 are reported missing”.

“We have seen media reports about the death of Indian nationals in Yemen. Indian Embassy officials in Djbouti are in touch with local contacts and we have ascertained that there were two boats one of which was plying between Berbera (Somalia) and Mokha (Yemen),” the External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson said.

The boats came under aerial bombardment in the afternoon of 8 September. The boats were carrying a total of 20 Indian crew members of which 13 are alive and 7 are reported missing, he said, adding, no other information is currently available regarding the identities of the Indian nationals.

“Embassy officials are in constant touch with local authorities and are also due to meet with the boat owner today at which point of time more information would be available,” he said.

Some media reports, quoting residents and fishermen, yesterday claimed that at least 20 Indian nationals were killed in air strikes by Saudi-led coalition forces on fuel smugglers at Yemen’s Hodeidah port.

They claimed two boats were hit in the attack on an area near the port. India does not have Embassy in Yemen, which was shut down in April after evacuation of its nationals.

(PTI)

UN: Middle East wars hit 13 million schoolchildren

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More than 8,850 schools no longer usable due to violence in six Middle East nations and territories, UNICEF reports.

In the Gaza Strip at least 281 schools had been damaged, and eight 'completely destroyed', the UN said [Reuters]

In the Gaza Strip at least 281 schools had been damaged, and eight ‘completely destroyed’, the UN said [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

More than 13 million children are being denied an education due to conflicts in the Middle East, the UN has said, warning “the hopes of a generation” would be dashed if they cannot return to classrooms.

In a report on the impact of conflict on education in six countries and territories across the region, the UN’s children fund UNICEF on Thursday said more than 8,850 schools were no longer usable due to violence.

It detailed cases of students and teachers coming under direct fire, classrooms used as makeshift bomb shelters and children having to cross active front-lines just to take their exams.

“The destructive impact of conflict is being felt by children right across the region,” Peter Salama, regional director for UNICEF in the Middle East and North Africa, told AFP news agency.

“It’s not just the physical damage being done to schools, but the despair felt by a generation of schoolchildren who see their hopes and futures shattered.”

Last year alone, UNICEF documented 214 attacks on schools in Syria, Iraq, Libya, the Palestinian territories, Sudan, and Yemen.

In Syria, it said education was paying a “massive price” after four-and-a-half years of conflict.

One in four schools have been closed since the conflict erupted, causing more than two million children to drop out and putting close to half a million in danger of losing their schooling.

In addition, more than 52,000 teachers have left their posts, saddling the country’s crumbling education system with an acute skills shortage.

“Even those Syrian teachers who have ended up as refugees in other countries have faced obstacles which prevent them from working,” the report said.

‘School no longer safe’

UNICEF said one of the worst direct attacks on a school in the region came in Yemen, where 13 staff and four children were killed in an assault on a teachers’ office in the western city of Amran.

“The killing, abduction and arbitrary arrest of students, teachers and education personnel have become commonplace” in the region, the report said.

Hundreds of schools and colleges have been closed since March, when a Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes on Houthi rebels who had seized the capital Sanaa and several parts of the country.

In the embattled Gaza Strip, which saw a 51-day war last year between Hamas and Israel kill about 2,200 Palestinians and 73 on the Israeli side, the UN said at least 281 schools had been damaged, and eight “completely destroyed”.

“My children were injured in a school. They saw people injured with missing hands or legs, with wounded faces and eyes,” the report quoted Gaza mother-of-two Niveen as saying.

“They no longer see school as a safe place.”

‘Generation in the balance’

UNICEF said that violence in Iraq, where pro-government forces are battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, has had a severe impact on the schooling of at least 950,000 children.

It detailed scenes among the 1,200 schools in Iraqi host communities that have been turned into shelters for those displaced by violence, with up to nine families per classroom forced to prepare meals in courtyards.

Conflict has also affected child learning in Libya – still reeling from the 2011 ouster of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi – with more than half of those displaced in the chaos reporting that their children cannot attend classes.

In the second city of Benghazi alone, the UN said just 65 of 239 schools are still functioning.

In Sudan, the agency said high numbers of internally displaced families fleeing violence in Darfur and South Kordofan states was putting untenable strain on the country’s creaking school infrastructure.

UNICEF called for better informal education services in countries affected by school closures and for donor nations to prioritise education funding throughout the Middle East.

“With more than 13 million children already driven from classrooms by conflict, it is no exaggeration to say that the education prospects of a generation of children are in the balance,” it said.

The role of land, oil and ports in the Yemeni crisis

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Yemeni crisis

by Shoks Mnisi Mzolo, Cii Broadcasting

On the surface, the roots of the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Yemen as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to rain bombs on its southern neighbouring are hard to determine. The kingdom, whose military and their personnel are turning Yemen to a wreck, defends its involvement, in the violence and political strife gripping its neighbour, to its determination to stop an illegitimate government from taking over in Sana’a. Many have scoffed at not only the theory but also lamented Riyadh’s brutality that, in the name of pursuing rebels, has claimed thousands of civilian lives and displaced scores more while destroying infrastructure such as water tanks, schools and hospitals.

Without explaining the rationale behind the deaths directed at civilians, with the death toll now approaching 4,000, Riyadh claims its violence is meant to stop Houthi rebels, who staged a coup d’état earlier this year – that brought down then-President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government.

Scratching the surface, Prof Najib Ali Abdullah Alsoudi, an academic at the University of Ta’if, insists that it all boils down to money. In an interview with Cii, he dismissed the much-recycled pretext about ethnic or creed chasm or threat to the region’s security. Central to the political turmoil manifesting itself today is the rich kingdom’s thirst to economically subjugate the Middle East’s southern-most part, the professor said, going as far back as the 1960s.

King Faisal, a successor to deposed King Saud, was in charge of the oil-rich monarchy for the greater part of that decade. Imam Yahya, a king of Yemen, was succeeded by Imam Muhammad, also known as Sayf al-Islam al-Badr, in 1962. Their descendants’ struggle for control, by their countrymen or scions, revolved around Yemeni land and resources. Decades later, according to Alsoudi, Saudi Arabia is not keen to let go and is seizing Yemeni lands now.

The problem started when Imam Yahya’s impoverished then-monarch conceded to his neighbours, the professor said. “Imam Yayha was in a bad situation so he agreed to sign agreements, between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, that Najran and Aseer will be under Saudi as rental land for 20 years. When the 20 years finished, Ali Abdullah Saleh (then-president) he also re-signed the agreement between Yemen and Saudi,” Alsoudi added. That term came to an end last year, during Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s presidency. The then-incumbent turned down Saudi Arabia’s request to extend the land rental tenure. In a matter of months he was ousted and Yemen has been in the throes of the regional superpower’s bombs since then.

“After the revolution Yemeni people started talking about our land and the Saudi. So, the Saudi didn’t want the Yemeni people talking about that land. And, they want also, the Yemeni people to make Aden an international port. If Aden [were to become an] international port, that means Dubai and Jeddah will close already because all the ships will be coming to Aden because Aden is in the middle. So, if the ship is going to South Africa, it will stop in Aden,” the professor of in Arabic linguistics and Quranic studies pointed out.

The same goes for Australasia-bound ship and those headed for Asia, as far as Japan, among other destinations, Alsoudi explained. The UAE, which makes a fortune from the Dubai jackpot, would be one of the biggest losers if such a move passed and the kingdom the biggest winner given its landlord position. The two regional players, he added, have been at loggerhead over this with the impoverished Yemen finding itself in the middle.

With all of this in the background, Saleh, the former president, struck a relationship with Houthi. The latter was part of the 2011 revolution, among others. So, because of its role, Houthi is obviously no ally’s of the powerful kingdom. That said, its rise to power, not least after Hadi refused to extend the lease agreement, was bound to be solicit anger from Riyadh. Sadly, the Saudi military has since turned around and targeted civilians.

“[Saudi Arabia] don’t want to bring [our land] back,” as the academic summarised it, looking at some of the factors in the background. “They don’t want Yemeni people to take their oil from their land. We have a lot of oil… Saudi doesn’t want Yemeni people to take their oil and sell it to the world. They want us just to be poor people, a poor country. You know, in this [country] people eat leaves. Saudi has closed all the borders. We cannot receive any food [or aid]. I don’t know what’s wrong with that. I mean, we are Muslims, we are brothers. Why did the Saudi do that?”

Thousands displaced as battles rage in Syria's Hasakah

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Many killed in clashes between Syrian government forces, opposition forces and ISIL fighters in northeastern province.

At least 1.7 million Syrian refugees are hosted by Turkey, the highest figure recorded for Syrian refugees in the region [AFP]

At least 1.7 million Syrian refugees are hosted by Turkey, the highest figure recorded for Syrian refugees in the region [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

Dozens of fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Syrian government forces have been killed in ongoing battles in Hasakah province, a monitoring group and activists said.

The fighting has displaced more than 100,000 people, the UN said.

At least nine ISIL fighters and 12 government soldiers were killed during clashes on Monday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

On the eastern side of Hasakah city, Kurdish People’s units (YPG) foiled an ISIL suicide car bomb in the neighbourhood of Ghweran and captured three villages from ISIL fighters, activists and the Observatory told Al Jazeera.

ISIL launched its offensive on Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, which borders Turkey, on June 25.

Since then, at least 71 government soldiers and 48 ISIL fighters have been killed.

The Observatory said more than 30 civilians have been killed in the clashes, with an increase in the death toll expected.

ISIL moved closer to Hasakah city last month, but the city remains under opposition and YPG control.

Government air strikes have targeted ISIL fighters in several neighbourhoods in and around Hasakah since Thursday.

About 2,000 people are trapped in the neighbourhoods of al-Nashwa and al-Sharia due to the fighting and government air strikes, the UN reported over the weekend.

The UN also said at least 120,000 have been displaced due to the fighting within Hasakah city and its surrounding villages.

The population of Hasakah province in 2011 was 1.5 million – with 300,000 living in Hasakah city, which has a mixed Arab, Kurdish, and Christian population.

The UN also said they expect more people will try to flee in the next few days.

ISIL anniversary

Sunday marked one year since ISIL’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared himself a caliph of what he called the “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria.

ISIL now controls almost 50 percent of Syrian territory, declaring eight “Islamic states” inside the country.

They currently have presence in nine out 14 Syrian provinces and control many significant oil and gas fields.

Since Baghdadi’s statement a year ago, the Observatory said it has documented 3,027 executions carried out by ISIL, including those of 1,787 civilians, 74 of them children.

More than half of those executed were civilians and more than half of the executed civilians were members of the Sunni Shaitat tribe, which revolted against ISIL south of Deir Ezzor city in August 2014.

The overall toll includes the mass killings that took place in the surprise ISIL attack on Kobane last week after being forced out in January. Activists told Al Jazeera almost 300 people were killed in the attack.

The Observatory also reported that at least 8,000 ISIL fighters have been killed in clashes with Syrian rebels and YPG Kurdish forces, and in US-led air strikes that started in September 2014.

Refugee crises 'reflect world in chaos'

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Political will to stop conflicts missing, with old ones festering and new ones constantly erupting, UN official says.

A Somali refugee child carries her sibling at the Ifo camp in Dadaab near the Kenya-Somalia border [Reuters]

A Somali refugee child carries her sibling at the Ifo camp in Dadaab near the Kenya-Somalia border [Reuters]

by Diana Al Rifai, Al Jazeera

Doha: The UN refugee agency has said that the record number of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people globally is “a reflection of a world in chaos”.

On the eve of World Refugee Day, the UN released a new report showing that the number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 had risen to 59.5 million, compared with 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million a decade ago.

June 20 has been marked by the UN as World Refugee Day since 2000 to honour those who are forced to flee their home countries under the threat of persecution, conflict and violence.

Globally, one out of every 122 people is now either a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum.

Melissa Fleming, UNHCR spokesperson, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that not nearly enough is being done globally to combat the unprecedented crisis.

“Displacement numbers at this scale are a reflection of a world in chaos, where the political leadership to stop and prevent conflicts is missing in action,” she said.

“The old conflicts continue to fester unresolved and new conflicts continuously erupt. And humanitarian organisations are acutely underfunded.

“We fear that in 2015, at current forecasts, will have to make do with as much as $200m-$300m less than in 2015 because of currency fluctuations.

“This means we cannot meet even the basic needs of the millions of forcibly displaced people in desperate situations.”

The large increase in displaced persons has primarily been driven by the war in Syria. Almost four million Syrians are now refugees, while a further 7.6 million are internally displaced, the UN says.

“The level of displacement and suffering is growing by the day [in Syria] and we fear it will get much worse before it gets better,” Fleming said.

Afghanistan (2.59 million) and Somalia (1.1 million) are the next biggest refugee source countries.

Major new displacements have also been witnessed in Africa – mostly in the Central African Republic and South Sudan.

Overall, the largest refugee populations under UNHCR care are Afghans, Syrians and Somalis – together accounting for more than half of the global refugee total.Meanwhile, Pakistan, Iran, and Lebanon are hosting more refugees than other countries.

Internal displacement – people forced to flee to other parts of their country – now amounts to a record 33.3 million people, accounting for the largest increase of any group in the new UN report.

Among all those displaced globally, Fleming told Al Jazeera, more than half are children.

“We are particularly worried about a lost generation of Syrian children,” she said.

“Inside Syria, their schools have been bombed or, living in displacement, they have no access to education. And refugee children face similar limitations. In Lebanon, for instance, only 20 percent of Syrian refugee children are in school.”

The UN’s new report also indicates growth in the numbers of refugees seeking safety through dangerous sea journeys, from the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and the seas of Southeast Asia.

 

UN: Millions face food emergency in war-torn Yemen

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Ongoing conflict creating “emergency level” scarcity of staple foods and other commodities, new report finds.

Children fetching water in Yemen's capital Sana'a. (Photo: UNICEF/Yasin)

Children fetching water in Yemen’s capital Sana’a. (Photo: UNICEF/Yasin)

by Al Jazeera

At least six million people in Yemen are in urgent need of emergency food and life-saving assistance, a new United Nations (UN) investigation has found.

The UN report, released on Thursday, said 10 out of Yemen’s 22 governorates are facing an “emergency level” food security situation amid the ongoing conflict, including major areas like Aden, Taiz, Saa’da and Al Baida.

“We are seeing a serious and sharp deterioration of the food security situation because of the ongoing conflict, which is also making humanitarian access difficult,” said Salah El Hajj Hassan, Yemen Representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

“Unless access to the affected population is guaranteed to provide humanitarian assistance, further deterioration of the situation is very likely.”

The European Union-funded study said the ongoing conflict has created “a scarcity of staple foods and other essential commodities, disrupting livelihoods, markets, agriculture and fisheries, import, export and commercial activities, among others.”

“With the fluidity of the situation and until a political solution is in place, we will continue to see an increase in the number of people struggling to feed themselves and their families and further deterioration in food security across Yemen,” said Purnima Kashyap, a World Food Programme official.

Talks in Geneva between the exiled Yemeni government and the Houthi rebel group continue to stall, and have been extended until Friday.

Shortage during Ramadan

As Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of prayer and fasting, started on Thursday, Yemenis in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa said they are facing difficulties with the rise of living costs.

The Saudi-led coalition’s campaign and sanctions have meant fuel shortages and power cuts as well as a near halt on imports, leading to inflation in basic food items.

“We are suffering from a lack of water, electricity, fuel and from everything else,” said Sanaa resident Abdullah Saleh.

In Sanaa, tens of men, women and children line up daily to collect water from wells run by charities and what they gather is just about enough for their needs.

Power cuts have added to residents’ woes, especially as the holy month approaches.

“I don’t know how the Yemenis are going to welcome in the first day of Ramadan in light of a total or partial lack of fuel including gas, diesel and petrol and a suffocating food crisis,” said local resident Khaled al Awbaly.

Over 230,000 killed in Syrian conflict since 2011

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Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates the death count could be far higher due to a large number of inconclusive disappearances. (AFP/File)

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates the death count could be far higher due to a large number of inconclusive disappearances. (AFP/File)

by Arutz Sheva

Syria’s brutal conflict has left more than 230,000 people dead, including almost 11,500 children since it broke out in 2011, a monitoring group said Tuesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented the deaths of 230,618 people, according to AFP.

The toll includes 69,494 civilians, among them 11,493 children and 7,371 women.

Combatants account for a majority of those killed, with 49,106 regime forces and 36,464 government loyalists among the dead.

The loyalist fighters killed were mostly members of local militias, but also included 838 from Lebanon’s powerful Shiite terror group Hezbollah and 3,093 Shiite fighters from other countries.

The Observatory documented the deaths of 41,116 rebels, Syrian extremists and Kurdish fighters.

Anti-regime foreign fighter deaths numbered 31,247, most of them extremists.

Abdel Rahman said another 3,191 of those documented killed in the conflict remained unidentified.

The Britain-based Observatory relies on a broad network of activists, fighters, and medics across the war-ravaged country.

May was the bloodiest month of 2015 in Syria, with 6,657 killed — the majority of them regime forces and extremist fighters locked in fierce clashes on several fronts.

The Observatory’s toll does not include some 20,000 people who have disappeared after being arrested, 9,000 people in government detention, and at least 4,000 people held by Daesh (ISIS).

The monitoring group said thousands of people had disappeared or were unaccounted for after clashes.

As a result, the Observatory estimates that the conflict’s actual death toll is likely tens of thousands higher than its figure.

20 million people in grave danger as Yemen's humanitarian crisis deepens

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After months of US/Saudi military assault, almost 80 percent of population in desperate need of medical, food, and water aid

Children fetching water in Yemen's capital Sana'a. (Photo: UNICEF/Yasin)

Children fetching water in Yemen’s capital Sana’a. (Photo: UNICEF/Yasin)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

More than two months of a brutal Saudi Arabia-led military assault and siege on Yemen has sown a humanitarian crisis that now engulfs the vast majority of the country’s people, with U.S.-backed naval blockades cutting off most aid shipments, even as 20 million Yemenis—80 percent of the population—are in dire need of medical, food, and water assistance, according to United Nations figures.

The UN’s grave assessment will be formally released next week, according to The Guardian. At a press conference on Friday in Geneva, representatives of the global body said that more than 2,288 have been killed, nearly 10,000 wounded, and more than one million displaced since the beginning of the Saudi coalition military assault, in which the United States is a key participant.

“Half of the new displacement—more than half a million people—has occurred in three governorates alone: Hajjah, Ad Dhale’e and Ibb,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “The number of displaced is expected to increase further over the coming weeks if the conflict continues.”

The naval siege is also blocking shipments of oil and gas, leading to shortages that are disrupting electricity and forcing the closure of hospitals, schools, and water pumps. People living in areas heavily impacted by the Saudi coalition air bombardments, as well as on-the-ground clashes, are in the position of having to find a way to obtain food and water amidst the fighting.

In what aid group Doctors Without Borders describes as “indiscriminate airstrikes,” the Saudi coalition has bombed schools, refugee camps, residential neighborhoods, humanitarian aid warehouses, and other civilian infrastructure. The organization warned on Twitter:

Last week, the humanitarian organization Oxfam warned that at least 16 million people in the country are without access to clean drinking water and “Yemen’s hospitals are in no condition to adequately cope with an outbreak of a water-borne disease.” As they have since the Saudi-led assault began, Yemenis have turned to social media to document the impact of the war and call for an end to the fighting:

Fresh bombing in Yemen as humanitarian ceasefire ends

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Coalition warplanes target Houthi rebel positions in al-Sawlaban and al-Arish in Aden province, Saudi officials say.

Yemen

by Al Jazeera

Arab coalition nations have resumed air strikes against Houthi fighters in Yemen as a UN envoy called for an extension of a five-day humanitarian ceasefire that expired late Sunday.

The coalition targeted Houthi rebel positions in al-Sawlaban and al-Arish in Aden province, Saudi military officials said early on Monday.

Al-Masirah TV, a Houthi-backed channel, reported that Saudi troops were also shelling al-Manzala district in al-Dalih near the Yemen-Saudi border, in addition to Al-Ghawr mountain.

“I call on all parties to renew their commitment to this truce for five more days at least,” UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said earlier in Riyadh. “This humanitarian truce should turn into a permanent ceasefire.”

His appeal followed clashes between rebels and pro-government forces across south Yemen on Saturday despite the truce, which has largely held since starting on Tuesday at 2000 GMT.

Speaking in Seoul on Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the US continues to support the idea of a humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen, but that such a truce was difficult given the current circumstances.

The official Saudi Press Agency, meanwhile, reported that the UN envoy met Saudi chief of staff Lieutenant General Abdulrahman bin Saleh al-Bunyan and discussed “humanitarian aid efforts” in Yemen.

Aid groups have called for a lasting truce in the impoverished country, where a Saudi-led regional coalition has waged an air war Houthis and their allies since late March.

Yemeni political parties began talks on Sunday in the Saudi capital aimed at finding a solution to the crisis. But the Houthis stayed away from the meeting of some 400 delegates, including President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has taken refuge in Riyadh.

Hadi repeated accusations that the rebels had staged a “coup”.

“We are trying to regain our nation” from militias backed by “external” forces, he said in a reference to Iran, which has denied arming the rebels.

An Iranian aid ship bound for Yemen in defiance of US warnings has entered the Gulf of Aden and is expected to dock on Thursday, media in Tehran reported.

Clashes in Aden

Its mission has been overshadowed by US calls for it to head to a UN emergency relief hub in Djibouti instead of the Yemeni port of Hodeida.

Clashes raged overnight Saturday in the central city of Taiz between Houthis – supported by troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh – and pro-Hadi forces.

The rebels, who seized Sanaa in September and have since swept across many other regions, bombed a village south of Taiz, killing 14 civilians, a local official said.

Sporadic clashes also continued in Aden, the scene of fierce fighting since rebels advanced on the southern port in late March after Hadi took refuge there.

Aden health chief al-Khader Laswar said four people were killed in clashes Sunday and 39 were wounded, among them two children and four women.

Laswar has said that 517 civilians and pro-Hadi fighters have been killed there in the past 50 days. The toll includes 76 women and children, he said.

Quoted by the government news agency Sabanew.net, Laswar said he could not provide a toll for the rebels.

He added that 3,461 people were wounded, and said most Aden hospitals were currently out of service as “most” medics have fled.

The United Nations has expressed deep concern about the civilian death toll from the bombing as well as the humanitarian impact of an air and sea blockade imposed by the coalition.

It says more than 1,600 people have died in the conflict since late March.

Houthis intensify use of child soldiers, violating international law: HRW

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A Yemeni child lies in a bed at a hospital in the capital Sanaa on May 12, 2015, a day after he was wounded in an air strike by Saudi-led coalition hit an arms depot on the eastern outskirts of Sanaa. (AFP/Mohammed Huwais)

A Yemeni child lies in a bed at a hospital in the capital Sanaa on May 12, 2015, a day after he was wounded in an air strike by Saudi-led coalition hit an arms depot on the eastern outskirts of Sanaa. (AFP/Mohammed Huwais)

by Hayat Norimine, Al Bawaba

The Human Rights Watch called for an immediate stop to the use of child soldiers in Yemen’s armed groups Tuesday, as Houthi rebel group intensifies its recruitment of children to use in their fight against Yemen’s government loyalists.

The monitor said the groups’ use of child soldiers violates international law and should face prosecution. Since September 2014 the HRW said the armed militants have increasingly been using children, aged at least as young as 12, in the armed conflict. Some are used as scouts and first aid assistants, while others are trained to fight.

“All armed groups in Yemen should reject sending children to battle or using them to support fighting,” HRW special adviser Fred Abrahams said. “The cost to these young people – the trauma, the injuries, and the lost schooling – is huge, as is the cost to Yemen’s future.”

Children with the Houthis and other armed groups make up about a third of all fighters in Yemen, according to UNICEF. Armed groups have recruited at least 140 children in one month alone, from late March to April.

The HRW said there have been several reports of 14- to 16-year-old soldiers carrying rifles and handguns from all parties of the war. One witness told the organization of a 7-year-old Houthi fighter standing at a checkpoint with an assault rifle.

A Houthi recruiter told the organization the children in active combat receive military training, while others provide first aid, collect bodies, carry food and ammunition or serve as guards.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon published a list of violations against children in May that included the use of children in armed forces by armed forces in Yemen.

The Human Rights Watch interviewed several children who had been recruited by the Houthis to fight in the war and wounded, including a boy who was shot in the chest and continued to fight after recovery.

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