“UK bombs kill civilians”: Gov’t facing court battle over arms sale to Saudi Arabia
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Hashim Sheikh
- . February 1, 2023
- . Update: February 1, 2023 8:16 pm
The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has launched a courtroom battle against the UK’s arms sale to Saudi Arabia, raising concerns over the weapons exacerbating an already significant humanitarian disaster in war-torn Yemen.
UK’s High Court on Tuesday began hearing the case brought forward by the campaign group, which says arms exports have contributed to the deaths of scores of civilians. Emily Apple, a spokesperson for the group, has accused the government of “caring more about profit than war crimes.”
In Yemen, more than 23 million people, including almost 13 million children, are estimated by the UN to be in dire need of humanitarian assistance. By late 2022, over 17 million Yemenis lacked access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene services. Years of conflict, recurring climate shocks, and large-scale displacement have made families more vulnerable to communicable disease outbreaks.
The conflict started in 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized large swaths of the country. The war further worsened in 2015, when the Saudi Arabia-led coalition intervened to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The coalition has received assistance from the UK, the US, and several other Western powers.
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Since the escalation, both sides have been accused of war crimes during fighting that has, according to the Yemen Data Project, killed over 8,900 people to date.
An UN-brokered truce deal agreed to last year has been delivering the longest stretch of relative calm in the country since the war began. The agreement, despite expiring in early October, has largely held.
Campaign group CAAT won a similar legal battle in 2019. Following the ruling, the UK government temporarily halted sales. But exports resumed the next year under the order of then-trade minister Liz Truss.
The group is challenging the lawfulness of the 2020 decision to continue supplying weapons to the Saudi-led coalition. The exports, according to CAAT, have made the UK $28 billion since the conflict escalated.
