Yemenis Accuse Houthis of Using Gaza War to Recruit Marginalized Youngsters
(AWP) - Yemenis accused the Houthi group of launching a draft campaign in the circles of marginalized people of different ages in 30 districts in the Yemeni capital Sana’a and the province of Ibb with money allocated in the form of wages and operation expenses.
Persons from marginalized segments who have fled to the city of Taiz said the Houthis exploit these people’s needs for money and try to convince the recruits that they would go to fight in Palestine, which is not true.
“One of the Houthi militias came to us and told us to get drafted for Gaza. Some of our friends agreed, but refused and escaped to Taiz province. They took our friends to fight but on fronts inside Yemen. Some of them were wounded and others detained and denied their rights. They gave them nothing,” said Samir Ali Fari’e, a Yemeni man who left Ibb and relocated to Taiz.
Abdel-Qadir Abdou Ghanim, who also relocated from Sana’a to Taiz, spoke of the fate of his children recruited by the Houthis.
“My children and I were in Sana’a, six boys and six girls. We had a home and a job. Supervisors from the Houthis wanted to take my children. They were private-sector workers. They told them they would hire them better than the private sector. They told them they would send them to Palestine. This has not happened. They were actually working for the Houthi militias,” he said.
Ghanim complained of bad circumstances he was going through after relocating to Taiz.
“Now, I am living in Taiz province. I don’t have a house of my own and I don’t know where I should dwell. I am homeless and a guest of good people. I don’t have anything,” he noted.
For his part, Abdul-Ghani Aqlan, the official spokesman for the National Union for Disadvantaged People (NUDP), said the Houthi militias were only using the marginalized categories and sending them to the war fronts under the guise of supporting Gaza, which is a violation of human rights.
“As black citizens in Yemen, we condemn these breaches and conducts that are only conducive to ethnic cleansing of this category,” he stressed.