Hundreds of children in Yemen have been thrown into armed conflict in recent months. These young people are being used by militias who exploit the precarious financial situation of many average families to recruit young soldiers and send them to conflict zones. These children have been stolen from their families by the Houthis and by Al Qaeda.
The recruitment of children is morally and legally unacceptable and is prohibited under international law.
By throwing these children into their war in Yemen, the Houthis are killing the innocence of childhood.
International reports have revealed the extent of this growing phenomenon. One report recorded the deaths of 159 children who have been coerced into conflict.
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda members keep convincing the children that if they die they will immediately go to heaven. These children have been deprived of an education by those armed religious groups. Clearly, this recruitment has nothing to do with Islam.
Many children have been kidnapped and beaten into submission. Many more were persuaded to join the Houthis to escape from poverty.
Unemployment, poverty, low social awareness, the closure of a large number of schools and the declining standard of education are driving factors for the recruitment of children in Yemen.
Houthi militiamen deliberately mislead children by pretending to take them to attend tutorial sessions or making them think that their duties would in civilian facilities. Instead, they are transferred to the battlefront, where children are expected to take a direct role in the fighting.
Other extremist groups, such as Al Qaeda, train children to serve their goals. Children serve military leaders, starting with clean-up work at the military headquarters before graduating to reconnaissance work and combat.
Regardless of who arms children, such groups do not take into consideration UN conventions, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Geneva Conventions, and international protocols, such as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
Unicef has monitored and tracked a frightening increase in the recruitment and use of children in Yemen in 2015.
The documented evidence in 2015 amounted to 848 cases of children being recruited. This compares to 156 cases being monitored in 2014.
However, local estimates reckon the situation is even worse and in reality the numbers are far higher as the recruitment of children remains far from the gaze of monitoring organisations and activists.
According to UN reports in Yemen, nearly 1,300 schools have been destroyed by the war, while 3,600 schools were closed before the end of the last academic year.
Unicef’s Education Under Fire report states that “as of August 2015, at least 1.8 million children were without an education. This is in addition to more than 1.6 million who were out of school before the conflict escalated.”
That same report indicates that the war in Yemen prompted thousands of children to abandon books and pencils and go to fight in the conflict.
The international community must face down and stop these crimes.
This problem has existed for a long time and dates back to the time when Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime used to recruit children and minors.
Yemen’s president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi issued a decree in November 2012 to ban the recruit of minors under 18 years into the army or for security purposes, but it seems this decision was never implemented. Unfortunately, the Houthis and Al Qaeda have hijacked and smashed that protection. They must be stopped.
Basem Alabsi is a Yemeni human rights activist and writer
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
