Houthis Kidnap, Forcibly Recruit Yemeni Minors

A Yemeni boy poses with a Kalashnikov at a Houthi rally in Sanaa in July 2017. (AFP)
A Yemeni boy poses with a Kalashnikov at a Houthi rally in Sanaa in July 2017. (AFP)
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Houthis Kidnap, Forcibly Recruit Yemeni Minors

A Yemeni boy poses with a Kalashnikov at a Houthi rally in Sanaa in July 2017. (AFP)
A Yemeni boy poses with a Kalashnikov at a Houthi rally in Sanaa in July 2017. (AFP)

R. M. A., a 13-year-old Yemeni boy, was not aware that his Houthi-run neighborhood was no longer a safe place for a minor his age. On September 1, Houthi militiamen specialized in kidnapping and recruiting children had nabbed him off the streets of Yirim city, north of Ibb governorate.

According to family members of the minor who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat under the conditions of anonymity, R.M.A had left his house in Yirim seeking public transportation to reach his father’s village but was abducted by gunmen before he even made it to his ride.

The Houthi gunmen had blindfolded the boy and threatened to kill him if he yells or screams at military and police checkpoints. He then was thrown onto a bus heading towards Sanaa.

A few kilometers into his journey, the kidnapped boy mustered the courage to yell for help when he felt the bus stop at a checkpoint where police under Houthi control where at the checkpoint. They answered the boy’s call for help and released him after hearing his story.

The culprits, however, were also freed after having successfully identified themselves as Houthi militants.

Two other accounts of child abductions were simultaneously recorded in Sanaa.

The incidents invoked the horrid memories of repeated waves of child kidnap that swept Yemeni cities and villages over the last years.

Human rights activists accuse Houthis of abducting children and driving them to secret hideouts where the minors are indoctrinated and trained to use weapons, before they are ultimately used as cannon fodder.

An anti-Houthi security officer based in Sanaa, speaking under the conditions of anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Iran-backed Houthis have established a specialized taskforce focused on hunting down eligible minors for recruitment purposes.

The officer revealed that each militant receives a $500 payment in cash for every teenager they bring in to Houthi boot camps.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms published a report covering the period from January 1, 2015 to August 30, 2019, in which it documented over 65,000 accounts of violation of children’s rights across 17 Yemeni governorates.



Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
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Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP

A restart of Iraq's Kurdish oil exports is not imminent, sources close to the matter said on Friday, despite Iraq's federal government saying on Thursday that shipments would resume immediately.

Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government have been in negotiations since February to end a stand-off that has halted flows from the north of the country to Türkiye's port of Ceyhan. The KRG was producing about 435,000 barrels per day (bpd) before the pipeline closure in March 2023, Reuters reported.

On Thursday the federal government said that Iraqi Kurdistan would resume oil exports immediately through the pipeline to Türkiye's despite drone attacks that have shut down half of the region's output.

But on Friday a source at APIKUR, a group of oil companies working in Kurdistan, said that a restart depended on the receipt of written agreements. Another at KAR Group, which operates the pipeline, said that no preparations had been made for a restart.

Baghdad and the companies have not yet agreed how to restart the exports, a KRG government source said, while a source at Türkiye's Ceyhan said there was also no preparation at the terminal for a restart of flows.

On Thursday, a statement from KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the government had approved a joint understanding with the federal government and it was awaiting financial details.

Similar agreements in the past failed to secure a resumption in exports and it remains unclear if this deal will succeed.

Oil companies working in Kurdistan have previously demanded that their production-sharing contracts should remain unchanged and their debts of nearly $1 billion be settled under any agreement.

Oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan have been attacked by drones this week, with officials pointing to Iran-backed militias as the likely source of the attacks, although no group has claimed responsibility.

They are the first such attacks on oilfields in the region and coincide with the first attacks in seven months on shipping in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen.

On Thursday a strike hit an oilfield operated by Norway's DNO in Tawke, the region's counter-terrorism service said.

It was the week's second strike on a site operated by DNO, which operates the Tawke and Peshkabour oilfields in the Zakho area that borders Türkiye.

No casualties have been reported, but oil output in the region has been cut by between 140,000 bpd and 150,000 bpd, two energy officials said.