‘Why my child?’: Yemen’s Taiz mourns sniper’s killing of teen

Yemeni child killed by suspected Houthi sniper while heading to school in Taiz sparks grief and outrage among locals.

Taiz, Yemen – “Why did they kill my child, my source of strength?” Umm Ibrahim asked as she sat in the home of a relative, mourning the loss of her 14-year-old son, Ibrahim.

The child was killed on his way to school on Sunday with his younger siblings, shot by a sniper.

The family and other locals have blamed Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the killing. The Houthis have besieged the largely government-controlled Taiz in central Yemen for 11 years. It lies on the front line of the war between the Houthis and the Yemeni government – one that has largely been frozen since 2022 but which can still lead to violent incidents, such as Ibrahim’s killing.

“What did a small child do?” Umm Ibrahim asked as she sobbed bitterly at the still raw wound. “He was carrying a schoolbag on his back. Why was he assassinated in such an unjust, criminal way?”

Umm Ibrahim had already lost her husband nearly a decade ago after he disappeared under what she called mysterious circumstances. Ibrahim, her eldest child, quickly became someone she could rely on as they struggled to survive in the war-torn and economically deprived Taiz.