Houthi losses on frontlines spur recruitment of students and prisoners

As clashes and casualties rise in Taiz and Yemen’s western coast, the Houthi militia has expanded recruitment campaigns in areas under its control, targeting schools, prisons, residential neighborhoods, and tribes. These moves reflect the extent of mobilization the Iran-backed group is seeking to reinforce its frontlines with new fighters.

While the militia pushes to attract more recruits, concerns are growing over the targeting of children and their involvement in battles they cannot comprehend, indicating a widening recruitment net that now includes civilians. The Houthis face accusations of exploiting schools and social pressure to supply new fighters for the frontlines.

According to Al Arabiya, local sources in Dhamar province, central Yemen, reported large-scale recruitment campaigns in rural areas in recent days, aimed at sending fighters to the fronts in Taiz, Al-Sabiha, Bab Al-Mandab, and the Kahboub mountains.

Residents of Wasab Al-Ali district said that some of those targeted for recruitment are schoolchildren, some as young as 13, raising fears that educational institutions are being used to attract minors and subject them to military indoctrination, according to the local news site News Yemen.

In Sanaa, a human rights activist said Houthi members have entered schools to recruit students aged 12 to 13 for the frontlines. He noted that recruiters are luring students with promises of academic grades from the ministry in exchange for joining the fighting, urging parents to protect their children from recruitment drives and warning of the dangers of drawing minors into combat under educational incentives or mobilization slogans.

Recruitment efforts have not stopped at schools. Local sources in Sanaa said the militia has issued directives to neighborhood leaders to forcibly recruit from each area, emphasizing the need to meet specific quotas.

If implemented as reported, these directives signal a shift from propaganda campaigns to direct pressure on local communities, placing neighborhood leaders and families under demands to provide new recruits. Sources also mentioned moves to recruit women in Houthi-controlled areas, as part of a broader effort to expand mobilization within society.

Houthi recruitment campaigns are not limited to schoolchildren and residents; they also extend to prisoners and detainees in areas under the group’s control, in an attempt to widen the pool of fighters and compensate for manpower shortages on the frontlines.