Houthi media arm Al-Masirah has posted a video showing what it described as a “scout show and closing events for summer schools.” On Telegram, hashtags for the event were “science and jihad” and “summer courses.” These scenes appear to be part of the larger Houthi indoctrination campaign aimed at children. These types of “summer camps” have taken place for years, but they are now in the spotlight because of the increasing threat the terror group poses to the region.
In the video posted on Tuesday, young children, who appear to be between the ages of 9-12, are seen marching in formation and holding images of the Houthi leader.
In another part of the clip, a room full of armed men is seen apparently celebrating the children’s “completion” of the courses. Why all the men needed to bring AK-47s and other weapons to the event was unclear. The men don’t appear to be soldiers but rather supporters of the Houthis or parents of the children.
صور من الحفل الختامي المركزي للأنشطة والدورات الصيفية للعام 1446هـ في العاصمة #صنعاء#علم_وجهاد #الدورات_الصيفية pic.twitter.com/bLvX1BSWEe
— قناة المسيرة (@TvAlmasirah) May 27, 2025
In another scene, an image of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen in the background, and in other scenes, the children carry Palestinian flags.
In a Wednesday video, the Houthis also said that 6,000 people in the Hajjah governorate graduated from the “al-Aqsa flood course,” the Hamas name for the October 7 massacre. This video, filmed in the mountainous Kushar district northwest of Sanaa, was hashtagged “you are not alone” and “the battle of the promised conquest and holy jihad.”
The graduates of this course are grown men, many of whom seem to be approaching their forties. The poverty is clear in both the videos of the children and the grown men being pressed into service of the Houthis. The cult of the group’s leader is also increasingly on display, with trucks displaying his image and children made to worship him. Clearly, this movement is aiming to completely indoctrinate everyone in its clutches.
The Houthi children's camp is used as a way to recruit child soldiers
In 2021, German broadcaster DW noted, “The recruitment of child soldiers is without a doubt one of the most upsetting of the many human rights violations that have been documented during Yemen’s civil war.” That report focused on one 15-year-old recruit who had gone off to a Houthi training camp in the summer.
He was trained to fight the Saudi-backed Yemeni government at the time. This was before the Houthis had large regional ambitions aimed at cutting off trade in the Red Sea and attacking Israel. “Religious teachers had imparted the ideology behind what they saw as a holy mission, or jihad, and talked about why they were fighting to protect their homeland. God approved of their fight against the internationally-recognized Yemeni government, they said,” DW noted, about the training.
THE SUMMER CAMPS for children appear to occur most years in April and stretch into May, which is more spring than summer. Reports in 2024 noted that Abdul Malik al-Houthi had praised these camps in April last year. It is believed that hundreds of thousands of children and teens under 18 attend these camps every year, with some of them attending multiple times.
In June 2024, the Middle East Media Research Institute described a graduation event for 4,000 students from 16 schools. The youth “showcased their combat skills, which included simulated rifle exercises and military stepping. The students also displayed the Yemeni and Palestinian flags alongside the slogans ‘Boycott American and Israeli products’ and ‘Gaza, you are not alone.’”
The report added that “the official website of the Ansar Allah Houthi Movement noted about the event: ‘The demonstration, which was presented by the students of the summer courses, embodied the fact that the next generation is coming with the weapons of knowledge, an identity of faith, and a Quranic culture.’”
I’ve seen a lot in Yemen’s conflict, but this is unsettling. The Houthis’ graduation ceremony for their summer indoctrination camp: rows of boys in uniform, chanting, holding portraits of Soleimani, vowing to liberate Gaza. This is how Iran’s proxies prepare the next generation. pic.twitter.com/4IrUUwuUpO
— Fatima Alasrar (@YemeniFatima) May 27, 2025
In a post on X, researcher Fatima Alasrar noted that “Houthi summer indoctrination camps are a catastrophic project that’s been ongoing for a decade. Boys as young as 7 are taught war slogans, political loyalty, and martyrdom. A generation now molded by a dangerous ideology that rejects peace. This is Yemen’s real disaster.”
She noted the recent Al-Masirah videos of the children marching. She went on to add that “the footage comes straight from Houthi media. It’s staged, choreographed, and broadcast today as part of a broader strategy to project strength within Iran’s regional axis. It’s a bid for ideological legitimacy and leadership in the so-called Axis of Resistance front.”
Alasrar went on to note that “I’ve seen a lot in Yemen’s conflict, but this is unsettling. The Houthis’ graduation ceremony for their summer indoctrination camp: rows of boys in uniform, chanting, holding portraits of Soleimani, vowing to liberate Gaza. This is how Iran’s proxies prepare the next generation.”