Houthi militias forcibly recruiting children in Yemen’s Al Mahwit

Houthi militias embarked, this Monday, on a forced recruitment campaign targeting the children in the northern Yemeni province of al Mahwit, an area under their control.

Parents are afraid for the lives of their children who would be forced to fight in their ranks on their lost battle.

Local sources confirmed that the leadership of the coup militia in the province of Al-Mahwit asked the Directorate of Jebel al-Mahwit and several directorates to support their fronts with 170 fighters as compulsory conscription.

The Houthi militia had forced the local authority leaders in the departments to collect the requested number of fighters by force.

Al-Mahwit Media Center said that the militias held a meeting on Monday to approve the formation of a committee to carry out the effort to impose recruitment on citizens.

The committee involves the director of the al Jabal directorate Ali al-Tayari, the secretary-general of the local council Yahya Khadeef, the Houthi leader, Abdul Jalil al-Asiri and Ali Bahr.

The Center quoted the residents of the Jabal al-Mahwit district as saying that militia members were deployed in the Directorate, with statements calling for enlisting.

When they were met with rejection and refusal from the residents, they threatened the citizens, who fear forced drafting in Mahwit and the areas controlled by the militia.

The militia fronts have witnessed a large deficit and a severe shortage in their fighters, after thousands of them were killed on the fronts and the majority fled, forcing them to resort to forced conscription and intensifying the mine layering in an effort to disrupt the progress of the national army supported by the Saudi led Arab Coalition.