Child Soldiers in Marib and Shabwa

Most of its tribes, including the Murad and the Abidah, follow the Sunni Shafi’i school of Islamic jurisprudence, and have historically existed beyond the reach of the central state and on the fringes of power struggles between Zaidi imams and tribes in the northern highlands, an area the Houthis now dominate.[12] In anticipation of Houthi advances into Marib, in late 2014 Marib’s tribes began to. [...] It then examines evidence of child soldier use in Marib and Shabwa governorates, with a focus on the factors driving children to join the armed groups and the tactics the armed groups use in the recruitment process. [...] See, “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict,” Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN for Children and Armed Conflict, tools-for-action/optional-protocol/. [...] The biggest pool of recruitment for the various armed groups in Marib and Shabwa, whether under the control of the Houthis or the government, is the young male population from various Yemeni tribes. [...] “I received cultural and military courses to prepare for direct confrontation with the American-British-Zionist enemy and participate in the battle of the promised conquest and the holy jihad.”[41] As part of these increased recruitment efforts, the General Mobilization Authority[42] of the Houthi-run Ministry of Defense has expanded its reliance on summer camps.