The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms documents thirty-six thousand Houthi violations against children in Yemen over nine years.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms documented a total of 36,179 violations and crimes committed by the Houthi terrorist militias against children across various Yemeni provinces from January 1, 2017, to September 8, 2026, in its new report titled “Children of Yemen: From Schools to Battlefields”.

Severe Violations Affecting Children’s Lives and Rights

The report revealed multiple patterns of violations, including:

• Killings, injuries, sniper attacks, and indiscriminate shelling
• Kidnapping, enforced disappearances, torture, and rape
• Displacement and deprivation of education, healthcare, food, and water
• Forced recruitment of children and their deployment to combat fronts
• Planting landmines in roads, villages, farms, and schools

Shocking Statistics

• 5,495 children killed, including 712 infants
• 3,972 children injured by sniper fire, projectiles, and landmines
• 317 cases of kidnapping and enforced disappearance
• 117 kidnapped children tortured, including 9 children who died under torture
• 53 documented cases of rape
• 9,728 recruited children killed, with public funerals held for them
• 12,730 recruited children injured on the front lines
• 49,965 children displaced due to the war
• 37 children died from hunger in the last five months
• 4.5 million children deprived of education

Systematic Destruction of Childhood

The report emphasized that the suffering of Yemeni children is not merely a side effect of war but a systematic policy executed by Houthi militias to subjugate society through:

• Spreading ignorance
• Promoting sectarian ideological mobilization
• Recruiting children
• Transforming schools into military barracks

Warning of a Humanitarian Catastrophe

The network warned that the continuation of these violations could lead to the loss of an entire generation of Yemeni children. It called on the international community and UN organizations to fulfill their legal and moral responsibilities and to exert effective pressure on Houthi militias to cease their crimes and respect national laws and international agreements.

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