Desk review yemen

Number of children affected

There are no reliable estimates of how many children are associated with the armed forces and armed groups.

The early closure of 3,600 schools (76% of the country’s total) due to insecurity, which impeded about 1.85 million children to take this year’s final exams, makes children more susceptible to recruitment by the many armed groups.⁷⁹

37.5% of a total of 32 surveyors of an assessment carried out in Abyan directly observed children below 18 carrying arms.⁸⁰

UNICEF verified that 159 boys were recruited by armed groups – all since the escalation of the conflict in March 2015.⁸¹