Houthi authorities returned the bodies of six children to their families in the northwest city of Dhamar on Tuesday, 45 days after they were abducted from the Al-Jamarek neighborhood and taken to battlefields along the Saudi-Yemen border to fight for the rebels. 

An official working for Dhamar City’s local authority said the names of the six dead children, aged 14 and 15, were Mohammed Ahmed Al-Mindi, Khaled Silwan Al-Khawlani, Abboud Massad Al-Samawi, Wael Rassam, Jawhar Al-Tuhami and Mohammed Abdul Wahab Ali Jahlan.

Two of the children, Jahlan and Al-Mindi, were buried at the Rawdhat Al-Houthi Cemetery in the center of the city, while the bodies of the others remain at Dhamar General Hospital’s morgue, the official said.

The families of the dead children were outraged by the abduction and killing of their children without their knowledge. 

While speaking to Almasdar Online, a relative of one of the deceased children appealed to local, regional and international human rights organizations to stop the abduction and recruitment of young children who are being used as pawns to fight on the frontlines without the consent of their families. 

Nearly 2,000 children have died from Dhamar governorate while fighting for the Houthis since 2014, the majority of whom are from impoverished families in rural neighborhoods, the official said.