HAJJAH, Yemen, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Adel Rabie, 13, should be in school. Instead, he works at a market in Hajjah province in northern Yemen, trying to earn a living.
"I sell cigarettes to support my family... If I do not work, my family will not be able to live," the smiley kid told Xinhua in the market of Hayran district.
Like Adel, hundreds of other children in the market sit down in the hot sun from sunrise to sunset, selling cigarettes, vegetables and other cheap goods.
Adel says he tries to earn around two U.S. dollars a day to buy some food for his mom and his little sisters living in a tent at a camp for the families, displaced by war from the northern border villages. Adel's father died at the beginning of the war.
The war in Yemen erupted in late 2014, when the Iran-allied Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa. The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in the Yemen conflict in the following year to support Hadi's government.
The war has since killed tens of thousands of Yemenis, displaced 4 million and pushed over 20 million to the brink of starvation.
At the tent in the evening, the mother receives her son warmly and holds him in her arms.
"Adel left school three years ago. He becomes unable to go back due to the fighting and the economic crisis. If he does not work, his sisters and I will not be able to live. He should work and I feel sorrow for him... Seeing him smile tiredly breaks my heart," the mother said in front of her tent, which is located in the same district.
The five-year-long war and blockade have caused the collapse of the country's economy and the local currency, forcing more children like Adel to go to the hard labor in order to help their families survive.
According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the war in Yemen has forced over 2 million children out of school and put another 3.7 million at risk of being dropped out, due to non-payment of teachers' salaries for more than three years.
The war has already pushed around 80 percent of Yemen's malnourished population to rely on humanitarian assistance, turning the war-torn country to what the United Nations describes as the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world.
The local government authorities in Hayran district say that more than 1,200 displaced families in the area are in dire need of food aid, as many families cannot afford to buy one meal a day.
Most of the men in the displaced camp are farm laborers who can no longer find work.
"The ongoing war, the economic crisis, the high prices of food and medicine and the increasing numbers of displaced families are the reasons behind the increasing numbers of the child labor in the district and across the country," said Mohammed Awam, manager of the educational office in the government-controlled Hayran district.
Children at labor face risks of exploitation, sexual abuse and forcible recruitment to the fighting.
And as the war continues in Yemen, this younger generation faces an uncertain future. Enditem
