The Conflict in Yemen and the Rising Crime Rate Among Children

Yasmine Abdulhafeez – Sawt Al-Amal (Voice of Hope)

Ten years of conflict in Yemen, and ten years of indescribable suffering for children who are paying a heavy price as a result of the conflict’s repercussions. Shocking figures reveal the extent of the humanitarian disaster that an entire generation is experiencing. Millions of children face the threat of homelessness due to displacement, hunger, disease, deprivation of education, forced recruitment, early marriage, and the spread of child labor.

A shocking report issued by UNICEF entitled “UNICEF: One million school-age children are out of school in Yemen,” revealed a severe educational crisis gripping Yemen, where more than one million Yemeni children have been deprived of their right to education due to the ongoing conflict. This crisis, which has intensified significantly since 2015, threatens the future of an entire generation and increases their humanitarian suffering.

The report, published in July 2021, stated that the number of children who were unable to enter classrooms in 2015 exceeded 890,000. The report also stressed the need for intervention and support to help Yemeni children return to the educational process and provide them with the necessary support.

The report stated that displaced children in Yemen are the most affected by lack of access to education, estimating that 523,000 children have not found seats for education due to overcrowding in schools and the lack of sufficient classrooms in their displacement areas.

Another UNICEF report entitled: “Nine years of conflict in Yemen have left millions of children suffering from malnutrition and stunting,” 2024, stated that the number of children suffering from malnutrition is one million Yemeni children.

The report pointed out the deaths of nearly 3,900 children and injuries to 7,600 children since the outbreak of armed clashes in the country. The same report stated that more than 10 million children in all regions of the country need urgent and essential humanitarian assistance.

As a result, most Yemeni children have been deprived of living in a peaceful environment that gives their childhood its right, away from fear, disease, deprivation, hunger, ignorance, injustice, displacement, and loss. This has caused them to live in unstable and tense environments, causing many to engage in illegal activities that threaten their future, such as theft, begging, and committing crimes that violate morality and the law.

The Economic Perspective

The difficult living conditions faced by Ali Mahyoob’s (a pseudonym) family made him think of any way to bring his five siblings, his mother, and his sick father a living, even if it wasn’t legal.

Ali Mahyoob lives in a rural area in Taiz Governorate, in an impoverished family suffering from extreme poverty. He was forced to drop out of school to look for work, but whenever he found work, he would be fired quickly when they discovered he was stealing from the people he was working with.

A vegetable vendor who asked to remain anonymous, who Ali Mahyoob worked with, said: “Ali came and asked me to work with me at the vegetable stall. Because his family needed money, I tried not to refuse his request. He started working, and I was careful to give him a decent amount of money, in addition to some vegetables that I gave him daily as help from me to his family. In the first few days of his work with me, I noticed he was hiding some of the money he received from customers. My eyes were deceived, and after I was sure, I found that he was actually stealing.”

He continues in his speech: “It was difficult to fire him from the job. So, I started talking to him about the dangers of stealing from someone who works with him. I warned him a lot and told him that he was like my son, and I doubled his wages, thinking that he would change. But he continued to take some vegetables and sell them in another place. I decided to let him find another job after that.”

According to testimonies from his relatives, this man was not the only one who worked with Ali and he stole from him. Many others sympathized with his family’s situation and opened up work opportunities for him, but they found out that he was a child accustomed to stealing.

The harsh financial conditions forced children to commit theft crimes, either to spend on themselves and provide what their families could not provide for them or to provide for their families, especially with the stoppage of employees’ salaries and the layoff of many workers from their jobs due to the destruction that many service facilities and buildings witnessed. Meanwhile, the country is witnessing an unprecedented wave of price hikes in food, goods, and services, which has negatively affected the lives of many families, especially children, who have become involved in many crimes, such as theft, begging networks, and others.

According to the researcher and economic journalist, Nabil Al-Shar’abi, the effects of conflict in any country cast a catastrophic shadow on all segments of society, but they are most severe on children. This is because they are the weakest segment in the community circle. In addition, the impact extends to the future, and for a longer time, because they are still at the beginning of their lives, and they have decades to live while paying the cost of the impact of the conflict on their childhood.

He added: “The effects of the conflict are not limited to the size of the economic damage alone, but they also intertwine with all aspects of life, such as the inability of the family to spend on health, education, decent housing, sufficient food, clean drinking water, suitable clothing, entertainment, and other factors needed for a childhood free from traumas.”

He continues: “The absence of these elements leads to a decrease or absence of sufficient frameworks to protect the child from falling into the pitfalls of violence resulting from dropping out of school and from the protected embrace of the family with guidance, sound upbringing, follow-up and guidance to an open space governed by the need to struggle and work for a living, without rules or protection.”

He believes that this transformation is tantamount to the breakdown of the “family contract” that ensures a safe and sound life for the child. Here, the child becomes prey to horrific exploitation and criminal trafficking for a living. They are exploited for selling drugs and contraband under different names, or forced into criminal activities such as murder or theft. They may also be used to facilitate criminal operations, such as tracking and monitoring information about a family, individual, commercial store, a vehicle or home. The information is then conveyed to those who assigned the task, often without suspicion because the perpetrator is a child. However, this child, whether unconsciously or under pressure, becomes a key factor in the crime and is often the first to suffer the consequences when the matter is exposed.

Citing: “At the beginning of my professional career – about two decades ago – I was asked to do a journalistic investigation on juvenile prisons. When I visited one of the prisons, I felt a real tragedy when I had simple conversations allowed with juvenile children. For example, one of them told me that a gang used him to lure children to kidnap them and traffic their organs, and when the gang was exposed and the police raided their location, they were with them.”

He continues: “Another juvenile child told me that he was assigned by people to monitor the homes of families to know their times of entry and exit. He did not know the purpose of knowing that information. When the houses were robbed, they found no evidence of the thieves, and he was the evidence and the victim; he was arrested because he was entering those homes under the pretext of asking for help. Because of his young age, the families sympathized with him and considered him one of their children, so he moved from house to house and relayed everything that happened in them.”

He adds: “And there is a juvenile child who told me that he met people and was raped. Under the threat of exposing him, he was delivering contraband to other people, until he was caught by security. And many cases helped in the occurrence of crimes. All of these were the main reason for their families to leave them, forcing them to go out to the streets or travel from the countryside to the cities and become victims of criminals who made them tools to carry out their crimes.”

The Social Perspective

Abdulwasi’ Al-Fatki, a journalist and political analyst, says: “The conflict in Yemen has cast a shadow on the vulnerable segments of society, as children have been greatly affected by its repercussions. This group has been subjected to significant psychological and social trauma, as well as witnessing violence and losing psychological and social security.”

He adds: “Children have not lived their childhood as they should, and instead, Yemeni children have endured the suffering of displacement with their families. Some have witnessed the death of their father, brother, or mother, which has given them a desire for revenge that has reached the point of easily murdering as a result of the injustice they feel. This has instilled in them a drive towards weapons and joining fighting groups or gangs.”

He notes that reports from organizations concerned with childhood warn of the recruitment of thousands of Yemeni children and the impact this has on their future and Yemeni society as a whole, making the spread of violence among children a common occurrence, or perpetrated by children against others. Serious crimes have been recorded against young children who have returned from battlefronts or training camps, as child combatants believe they have become men and have a place in society. This belief is reinforced by those who recruit children for combat, as they are easy to mobilize and send into battle. They are also less expensive and require less effort compared to older people.”

The Psychological Perspective

In this regard, Ramzi Zahir Omar, a psychologist, says: “Conflict negatively affects an adult because it causes many psychological, physical, mental, and neurological illnesses. So, what about a child, who is even more affected? They lose their sense of security from the loss of stability, especially if they have witnessed killings and violence.”

He adds: “Regarding the rise in crime among children, there is something called observational learning. Children who witness crimes or violence are affected psychologically, as they feel anxiety, fear, and post-traumatic stress disorder or psychological trauma. It also happens that children are affected by aggressive behavior and involuntarily imitate it.”

He continues: “Many children in Yemen find that their toys are weapons, bombs, and explosives. They learn this behavior by observing adults, and they practice violence on younger children or those their age without awareness because, in their eyes, this is normal behavior.”

The Conflict and Its Impact on the Spread of Violence Among Children

Many news and human rights reports point to the deep impact the conflict has had on the lives of many Yemeni children, forcing them to grow up too fast. Many no longer dream of buying toys or going to parks and playgrounds, but of guns and heading to the front lines.

Take the case of Ayham Hamood, a six-year-old boy. His mother says he always wants his toys to be guns, machine guns, police cars, and tanks. He’s also drawn to military clothing of all kinds, along with its accessories.

Ayham’s mother says: “He would sit next to his father, watching the news and listening to adults discussing the conflict and how far it had gone. He also saw armed groups passing through the area where we lived. So, he would imitate their movements and tell us he would be like them when he grew up.”

She adds, “Many times I’ve noticed he leans towards fighting and violence. I informed his father about it, especially when we observed him placing a piece of wood on his siblings and pretending to be a soldier wanting to ‘kill’ them. This made his dad stop following the news and distract him from this reality by taking him to cities where our relatives live.”

While kids around the world are striving to gain knowledge and develop their skills, Yemeni children are suffering from the harsh deprivation of their most basic rights, which are education and a sense of security. Even after years of this conflict, over a million Yemeni children are still out of school, posing a serious threat to Yemen’s future. This is the biggest danger facing children due to the impacts of armed conflict.