Outrage over Yemen’s Houthi rebels alleged shooting of a child in Taiz

The shooting of a Yemeni child in the city of Taiz by an alleged Houthi sniper has sparked nationwide outrage with activists urging rapid action against the rebel movement.

Taez, Yemen’s third-biggest city, has been a frontline in the conflict that started after the Iran-backed Houthi rebels ousted the internationally recognised government from the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.

A UN-mediated deal reached in Stockholm in December 2018 aimed to set up a committee to establish humanitarian corridors to the city, but little progress has been made so far.

The little girl, whose name is unknown, was apparently going to get water for her family on Monday when she was targeted by a sniper.

Painful images showed the girl’s body in a pile of blood after she was shot. They circulated on social media with the hashtag “Houthis are child killers” going viral.

Her brother attempted to pull her back into their house.

A human rights activist, Muna Luqman, said the child is another victim of the rebel’s vicious acts in the city.

“I have seen children and women killed and injured by Houthi snipers in Taiz as they invaded the city and positioned on rooftops causing armed conflict with resistance forces,” Ms Luqman said.

Hundreds of civilians, mostly children and women, have been shot dead by the Houthis since 2015, Nadwa Al Dawsari, a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute and expert on Yemen, said on Twitter.

“How we know it was Houthis? Because Houthi snipers are stationed in the hill that overlooks the neighbourhood where it happened,” Ms Al Dawsari said.

The girl’s health conditions remain unknown.