Houthis actively visiting schools to recruit child soldiers

The Houthi militia has recently intensified campaigns to recruit school students in the Yemeni capital Sanaa and other areas under its control.

The sources confirmed that the militia commanders increased their field trips to schools in Sanaa and the western provinces and the center of the country, to summon new fighters from school students to their lines, after the majority of the tribes refused to send more children to fight in their lost battle.

According to the sources, Houthi supervisors are organizing compulsory lectures for students in schools, to urge them to join their call for "Jihad", that the Houthi way is the right form of Islam and that Jihad is for the sake of God.

These moves coincided with the state weakness suffered by the militias, in more than one front after successive defeats and large field losses in recent days.

Houthi militias distribute handouts for the founder of the group, Hussein al-Houthi, as well as mobile phone flash memories with recordings promoting going to battle.

The sources pointed out that the lectures organized within schools are the introduction of intensive courses organized by the Houthis for students outside the schools in the evening or during the weekends.

Most often these lectures end with the disappearance of students from schools, and later news that they joined the militias, or that they met their end.

The prominent Houthi leader and youth minister in the coup government, Hassan Zaid, called last September to stop the educational process for a year, and push students and teachers to the front lines.