Yemen's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Abdullah al-Saadi, said that "the number of children recruited into the Houthi coup militia are more than 30 thousand children face the risk of death and violations of their rights at the hands of this militia."

In Yemen's speech delivered by al-Saadi at the first session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in which Yemen participates as a member of the Executive Council of the Asia-Pacific Group, he called for a review of the mechanisms for monitoring violations committed against children in the areas under the control of the Houthi militias, stressing that the statistics provided by the current mechanisms are far from reality.

He mentioned the militia's practices and their exploitation of the economic and humanitarian conditions of families, forcing them to recruit their children and throw them into their absurd crematoria.

Al-Saadi stressed the importance of cooperation between the government and UNICEF to implement the action plan to end and prevent the use of children in armed conflict signed between the Yemeni government and the United Nations in 2014, as well as the implementation of the road map to implement this plan.

He affirmed the important and joint cooperation between Yemen and the United Nations Children's Fund, and to create a partnership that would provide care for children in Yemen, protect them and ensure their future in light of the exceptional challenges and circumstances that Yemen is going through as a result of the unjust war waged by the Houthi coup militia against the Yemeni people, which has had a great impact on the life and future of children.

He expressed Yemen's aspiration for more cooperation with UNICEF to complete the map and eliminate the phenomenon of child recruitment, as well as providing protection, rehabilitation, and reintegration them into society and handing them over to their families.

Al-Saadi praised the role played by the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Action in financing the Rehabilitation Center for Children in Marib Governorate, and called on UNICEF to establish other centers in the liberated areas to rehabilitate children affected by the conflict and integrate them into society.

The report of the International Security Council's Panel of International Experts on Yemen had previously said that any child in Houthi militia-controlled areas had become vulnerable to kidnapping or seduction, and lure to death fronts by the Houthis at any moment, affairming that the Houthi militia has become a threat to hundreds of thousands of children in areas under its of control.

The report of the Panel of Experts revealed that it had received "information indicating the continued use of children in activities related to the fighting in Yemen", explaining an aspect of the Houthi coup militias' methods of luring children and throwing them on the frontlines through the confessions of children recruited by the militia.

The 214-page report, which was submitted to the Security Council at the end of January 2020, said that it was "able to document three cases of children between the ages of 12 and 15 who were used by the Houthi forces in fighting in 2017 and 2018."

On the Houthi militias’ methods of exploiting children in their battles, the report stated that, “in two cases, the kidnapping took place, either from the home or from the school. In the other case, the Houthis lured the child away from his home after seducing him by participating in an educational camp for three days.”

It added that the Houthi militias sent "the three children to a training camp where they spent three to four months, where they received lectures on ideology and jihad and they were trained in the use of small arms. They were later sent to the front lines on the border between Taiz and Hodeidah or in Marib", adding that the three children "were forced to do various tasks, including fighting."

Regarding the conditions experienced by the children on the fronts, the report mentioned their testimonies through which they confirmed that "they suffered from difficult conditions, including being beaten, and were not allowed to visit their families." In addition, the report confirmed that "none of them received a sum of money or salary."

The panel of experts indicated that it had also received “testimonies about children being trained in al-Saleh city in Taiz, which is as a center and prison used by the Houthis.”

In her previous statement on the occasion of International Childhood Day, the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor in the legitimate government, Mrs. Ibtihaj al-Kamal, had revealed that "the Houthi coup militias have recruited more than 23 thousand children, and kidnapped 700 others along the areas under their control."