Sanaa, Yemen – A month ago, a Houthi recruiter in his 40s, approached 16-year-old Abdulkarim in Sanaa and told him about the possibility of being sent to the front line in Marib, where fighting was raging against pro-government forces. Abdulkarim was promised a Kalashnikov, and a one-month military training course and 50,000 Yemeni rials ($100), slightly above the local average. In a country where more than four in five rural children are multidimensionally deprived, the offer was a tempting one.
While Abdulkarim was ready to fight, his father, 39, did not approve and so Abdulkarim stayed in Sanaa. I told the Houthi man of my father’s objection, and he left,” Abdulkarim told Al Jazeera. As Yemen experiences its most intense fighting in years, a new wave of child recruitment in the country is taking shape.
Ali Hazazi, head of the Human Rights and Civil Society Organizations Department at the Office of the President in Aden, told Al Jazeera that his organisation had documented 62 child recruitment cases in the second quarter of 2026 in Houthi-controlled provinces. The documented cases are just a fraction, as many go unreported,” he said. Against the backdrop of major offensives on Houthi positions, pro-government forces have captured many child soldiers, including on the al-Dhale front, he said.
Ahmed, 17, has been on the front lines in Hodeidah – a strategically important Yemeni Red Sea port – since May, fighting with the Houthis. He manages to call his family once a week and recently returned home for a week’s leave. Ahmed said he was ready to join the war and insisted on going.
I did not oppose him,” his father, Ismael, 48, who has 10 children, told Al Jazeera. I want him to try his luck in this experience. And his monthly salary of 45,000 Yemeni rials, about $80, would help us cover living expenses.” Ahmed spent his first month learning how to use an assault rifle, shoot from long range and move through areas with landmines.
The Houthis launched a major offensive against pro-government lines in western Taiz and southern Hodeidah last week, with more than 100 fighters from both sides killed since Thursday. For some families, the decision to allow children to join the fighting is shaped by a combination of economic hardship, social pressure and ideology. Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that the circumstances surrounding child recruitment in Yemen differ from those in other conflicts.
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