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Meet the children fighting in Yemen's civil war

Published 1 August 2017 in Blog

Child soldiers have become a familiar sight in Yemeni cities. Caught between religious slogans and local ideas of patriotism, more than 2,500 children have left school to serve at different fronts in the country's civil war.

Recruited on both sides

A UNICEF report found that Yemen's warring parties recruited more than 1,150 children between 2015 and 2016. Children are recruited on both sides.

"We went to defend our land and country, we had to go to the fronts," says a young boy.

"Of course, at first my father and mother didn't accept us carrying weapons, but then they did because it is a religious war," adds another young soldier.

Sociologist Abd Al-Kareem Ghanem explains: "There are people who believe that fighting local groups with ties to foreign groups is an act of patriotism… As a result, children are the victims of wrongful and exaggerated lobbying."

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Source: YouTube