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As many as half of the fighters involved in violent tribal clashes in northern Yemen are under age, a Yemenite child-rights organisation said. The Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection, based in the Yemenite capital ‘San’aa, said at least 63 people had been killed in tribal clashes in the northern ‘Amran province over the past four months, and some 40 per cent of them were children. “The tribal culture in Yemen does not regard a 15-year old as a child,” Ahmad Al-Qurashi, director of Seyaj, told The Media Line. “Yemen’s society as a whole views a 15-year old as a man and they’re forced into battles. The society views fighting alongside a tribe as an important part of a child’s passage to manhood. We see children as young as 13 carrying weapons that are bigger than they are,” he said. The legal age of joining armed forces in Yemen is 18. Al-Qurashi explained that the state was not acting to protect these children. “These tribal areas are unfortunately lacking in education, development and health. The children who do go to school will often drop out after the sixth or seventh grade and they’ll either become farmers of fighters.” This practice was not limited to ‘Amran but to other tribal areas as well, he said. “It’s a severe situation but people are keeping silent about this. The state is not intervening to reconcile between the tribes or to stop recruiting children.” Seyaj believes the government should support the tribes economically and provide them with better education rather than allow them resort to violence. The clashes in ‘Amran, about 50 kilometers north of ‘San’aa, erupted late last year between the Harf Sufian and ‘U’seimat tribes, and there are fears they will encompass larger tribal coalitions. There are also concerns that a continuation of the clashes will deflect from the power of the government forces, and give more power to Shi’ite rebels from the Al-Houthi clan, who are positioned in the northern part of the country. The tribes have a long-standing dispute over land, but the rebellion up north, which pits Shi’ite extremists against government forces, has accentuated their rivalry, with Harf Sufian supporting Al-Houthi and ‘U’seimat tribes siding with the government. ‘U’seimat tribes deny they are receiving government support against Harf Sufian. Yemen, located on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the poorest countries in the world. As well as an ongoing threat of Islamist terror, government forces have been engaged in a prolonged conflict with the radical Al-Houthi clan since 2004. Further information