Yemen’s Houthis have launched an enforced conscription drive for young men in areas under their control to help fight the Saudi-led coalition and UAE-backed forces.

The militia issued orders to take four civilians from each neighbourhood in the capital Sana’a to train them in the use of firearms before sending them to the battlefield.

The Minister of Information, Muammar Al-Iryani, slammed the Houthis’ orders saying they are using civilians as fuel for their war against the Yemeni people after losing hundreds of their fighters in the Al-Jawf, Marib and Al-Bayda governorates.

The minister described the enforced recruitment orders as the mass murder of civilians saying they will be used as human shields to protect Houthi fighters serving the Iranian expansion project.

According to UN reports, the Houthis’ capture of the capital has negatively affected residents and left more than 80 per cent of the population in need of aid.

Impoverished Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2015, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa. The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

The war, in which the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) back the Saudi-led coalition, has killed more than 100,000 people and pushed millions to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations (UN) official data.