Yemeni children at the heart of Houthi war machine

Badr Al-Din, kidnapped along with his older brother by the Houthi rebels in a displaced persons camp in Marib governorate, Yemen, on June 23, 2026. QUENTIN MÜLLER "They shot him in the head, right in front of my eyes," recalled Khaled (first names have been changed to protect the safety of those interviewed). The 16-year-old Yemeni boy mimed the limp body falling to the ground. In 2019, this child soldier from Ibb tried to escape from the front line where the Houthi rebels had forced him to fight. He discreetly contacted a friend, who came to get him. But his flight ended at a checkpoint. "There were several of us kids trying to escape. When they realized that, the officer commanding the checkpoint personally took care of killing him," he remembered.

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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Le Monde (EN).