More teenage recruits as Yemen conflict intensifies, U.N. says

By By Tom Esslemont LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - All warring sides in Yemen are increasingly using teenage boys to swell their ranks as fighting intensifies, the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) said on Thursday. Fighting began to spread across Yemen last September, when Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and began to fan out across the country, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi from his seat of power. During the same period UNICEF said it had documented 144 cases of recruitment of boys under 18. "Joining the armed forces and armed groups is often seen as a way to support families and the exacerbation of the conflict has increased recruitment opportunities," Micaela Pasini, the agency's head of child protection in Yemen, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.



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