Saudi Arabia: Houthis using children in armed conflict

Saudi Arabia’s delegation to the United Nations held a press conference on Thursday that was attended by delegation from the Arab coalition.

The press conference discussed the coalition’s efforts in Yemen and the seven truces violation broken by the Houthi militia.

General Misfer al-Ghanim, director of planning and operations management in the joint forces, stated that “the actions of the coalition forces are accurate.”

“We are very cautious in our operations and we try to not target civilians, but the other party is using children in the battlefields,” he said.

In spite of successive truces in Yemen, Ghanim stressed at the conference that the Houthi militias retaliated to seven truces with four 4500 hundred breaches, breaking international law and further deteriorated the humanitarian situation.

Using children as human shields

Houthis using children is nothing new. Recently, the French Foreign Ministry condemned it, as indicated by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and confirmed by Ambassador Abdullah al-Maalami.

Maalami, the Saudi permanent delegate to the United Nations, asserted, "The Houthis are using children in their armed forces, I would also like to emphasize that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the coalition forces cannot be held responsible if they are caught in crossfire in the front line.”