A/HRC/45/CRP.7 characteristics, and a determination to fight, despite some families’ pleas with the boys to remain home.388 Use in hostilities and casualties 266. The Group documented that 135 boys (out of 174 cases investigated) were used as fighters and deployed to frontlines in at least nine governorates.389 Out of those, 65 boys were younger than 15 years of age at the time. Reportedly, boys were not always told where they were being brought to fight or that they were about to take part in hostilities. Boys’ roles were fluid, moving from support to combatant roles and back. For instance, one boy normally used as a security guard at a high-ranking Houthi official’s home, would occasionally be deployed to the frontlines when reinforcements were needed.390 267. Hand in hand with the use of boys in combat came high rates of child casualties, including death and loss of limbs during hostilities, by unexploded ordnances or coalition airstrikes. Sixty-six of the 135 boys used as fighters allegedly died or were injured. The deadliest frontline for these boys was the Saudi-Yemeni border.391 “He would have four choices, either to return killed so we know where he was, or injured, or taken in the hands of the legitimate government, or escape. This was our situation, those were our only four choices." Brother of a Houthi child soldier392 268. The boys’ deaths affected whole families. For instance, the Group received reports that a single family lost its entire younger male generation.393 Boys’ deaths allegedly spurred young male relatives to volunteer to avenge the deaths.394 Such volunteerism of new fighters was encouraged in Houthi social media, in the broadcasts of boys’ funerals, and in martyrdom posters. The Houthi TV and YouTube channel Al-Masirah Mubasher regularly aired video footage of boy fighters’ funerals, hailing the children as martyrs who fulfilled “their duty to fight,” and recorded the deceased children’s relatives, including other boys, stating their intent to follow in the boys’ footsteps.395 By exalting the children’s martyrdom, the Houthis used the boys, even in their death, to recruit other boys. Sexual violence 269. Sexual violence against boys recruited by the Houthis remains underreported due to stigma and fears of reprisals, among other factors.396 The Group verified 1 such case and received credible allegations of two other cases.397 Sexual violence occurred in the early days of the boys’ recruitment and was perpetrated by Houthi supervisors who were personally involved in the boys’ initial recruitment or training in Sana’a, Sa’ada, and Amran.398 Detention 270. Additionally, the Group received reports of five boys (aged 10 to 15) recruited by the Houthis, who were captured on the battlefield and subsequently detained by coalition- 388 Confidential sources on file. Including in Al Bayda’s Qania frontline, Sana’a’s Fardat Nehem military camp, Al-Mahwit’s AlRajm frontline, Al-Dhale’e Damat frontline, Al-Hudaydah, Ta‘izz , Dhamar, and along the SaudiYemeni borderline in Sa’ada and Al-Jawf at Baqim and Najran frontlines. 390 Confidential source on file. 391 Confidential sources on file. 392 Confidential source on file. 393 Confidential sources on file. 394 Confidential source on file. 395 See Almasirah Mubasher YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/almasirahmubasher/videos 396 “The lack of access to conflict-affected areas, stigma and the fear of retaliation remain reasons for underreporting of this violation.” UN Secretary-General Report2020, para. 189. See also Gender and gender-based violence section. 397 Confidential sources on file. 398 Confidential sources on file. 389 70