Conflicts to Watch in The New Millennium

Impact on Citizens
Children and Women
Yemeni refugee female and children are extremely susceptible to smuggling and human
trafficking. NGOs report that vulnerable populations in Yemen were at increased risk for
human trafficking in 2015 because of ongoing armed conflict, civil unrest, and
lawlessness. Migrant workers from the Somalia who remained in Yemen during this
period suffered from increased violence, and women and children became most
vulnerable to human trafficking. Prostitution on women and child sex workers is a social
issue in Yemen. Citizens of other gulf states are beginning to be drawn into the sex
tourism industry. The poorest people in Yemen work locally and children are commonly
sold as sex slaves abroad. While this issue is worsening, the plight of Somali's in
Yemen has been ignored by the government.
Children are recruited between the ages of 13 and 17, and as young as 10 years old
into armed forces despite a law against it in 1991. The rate of militant recruitment in
Yemen increases exponentially. According to an international organization, between 26
March and 24 April 2015, armed groups recruited at least 140 children. According to the
New York Times report, 1.8 million children in Yemen are extremely subject to
malnutrition in 2018.
Both the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis were blacklisted by the UN over the deaths
of children during the war. In 2016 Saudi Arabia was removed from the list after alleged
pressure from Gulf countries who threatened to withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars
in assistance to the UN, the decision was criticized by human rights groups and the
coalition added again in 2017 and was accused of killing or injuring 683 children, and
attacking many of schools and hospitals in 38 confirmed attacks, while the Houthis were
accused of being responsible for 414 child casualties in 2016.
Education
The civil war in Yemen severely impacted and degraded the country's education
system. The number of children who are out of school increased to 1.8 million in 2015–
2016 out of more than 5 million registered students, according to the 2013 statistics
released by the Ministry of Education. Moreover, 3600 schools are directly affected; 68
schools are occupied by armed groups, 248 schools have severe structural damage,
and 270 are used to house refugees. The Yemen government has not been able to
improve this situation due to limited authority and manpower.
Some of the education system's problems include: not enough financial resources to
operate schools and salaries of the teachers, not enough materials to reconstruct
damaged schools, and lack of machinery to print textbooks and provide school supplies.
These are caused by the unstable government that cannot offer enough financial
support since many schools are either damaged or used for other purposes.
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