CSPA Implementation Tracker

Monitoring U.S. government efforts to leverage arms sales and military assistance to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers
Yemen

Years Listed

Each shaded box corresponds to a year the country appeared on the CSPA list and what types of waivers it received, if any.

Yemen has appeared on the CSPA list for fourteen consecutive years beginning in 2010. The U.S. president waived, either in part or in full, CSPA prohibitions against the provision of U.S. arms sales and military assistance to Yemen for eleven of these fourteen years, resulting in the provision of more than $286.8 million in arms sales and military assistance.

Specifically, the president has waived nearly $50 million in Direct Commercial Sales, more than $78.9 million in Foreign Military Financing, more than $4.9 million in International Military Education and Training, and more than $152.9 million in Section 1206 or Section 333 assistance. The president denied Yemen $225,000 in Direct Commercial Sales due to CSPA prohibitions.

Since 2021, U.S. presidents have been required to include justifications for CSPA waivers that were issued during the previous year in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report. Yemen’s 2020 and 2021 waiver justifications maintain that “[i]t is in the U.S. national interest to support efforts to bring about a negotiated political settlement led by the United Nations Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen,” and that “[t]his waiver will allow assistance that directly contributes to efforts to advance the UN-led political process.” The justifications also maintain that “a critical element of ending the conflict in Yemen is our counterterrorism campaign and efforts to counter Iranian arms smuggling to the Houthis,” and that “[b]uilding the capacity of the Republic of Yemen Government to meet these goals furthers important U.S. government security interests to include enhancing homeland security, while simultaneously moving toward the goal of ending the war in Yemen.” Similar language was included in the 2022 waiver justification for Yemen.

According to the U.S. State Department, Yemeni government and government-aligned forces have reportedly recruited and used child soldiers since 2009. This includes Yemen’s armed forces as well as the Security Belt Forces, a Yemeni government-aligned paramilitary group, both of which reportedly continued to recruit and use child soldiers between April and December 2021. Child soldier recruitment accelerated following the Houthi takeover of the Yemeni government in 2014 and the ensuing armed conflict. In 2019, the UN Group of Experts on Yemen reported that all parties to the war had recruited and used more than 3,000 children in their operations. Government forces have allegedly used child soldiers to guard checkpoints and military facilities, and there are reports – though unverified – that government forces used children as uniformed soldiers in combat. According to an international organization, at least 54 children between the ages of 9 and 17 were recruited and used by armed groups in Yemen between April and December 2021.

The Yemeni government has taken some steps to address the recruitment and use of child soldiers. In 2014, it signed a UN Action Plan to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers, which established specific steps for the release of children serving in its armed forces, among other things. However, Yemen has yet to implement the UN Action Plan. Since the plan was signed in 2014, officials have not reported demobilizing any child soldiers and have made limited efforts to do so. Efforts to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers have for years been encumbered by nascent but hampered political will, overlapping security, political, and economic crises, cultural acceptance of child soldiers, and weak law enforcement mechanisms. That said, the government has made efforts to raise awareness of child soldier issues, including by hosting trainings for defense and security officials on child soldier issues in 2019 and making public statements expressing its commitment to addressing the issue and discouraging recruitment and use of children by armed groups. And in January 2020, the government of Yemen entered into an agreement through the UN that created a roadmap for the implementation of the 2014 action plan, though no progress has been made to implement it. Additionally, since at least April 2020, the government operated an interim care center, funded by Saudi Arabia, to assist former child soldiers.

For more information, see the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report and Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. More information on the situation in Yemen can also be found in the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on Children and Armed Conflict and country-specific report on Yemen.

Total Waived and Prohibited

Since the CSPA took effect.

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Country- and program-level data on the number and type of national interest waivers granted, as well as the amount of arms sales and military assistance waived.

Amount Waived and Prohibited by Fiscal Year & Program

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