US, UK, France arms sales to Saudi -led coalition ‘devastating’ Yemeni lives, says Amnesty

YemenExtra

Y.A

The “irresponsible arms flows” by the US, UK, France and other European countries to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has inflicted “enormous harm to Yemeni civilians,” Amnesty International said Friday.

“There is extensive evidence that irresponsible arms flows to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition have resulted in enormous harm to Yemeni civilians,” said Maalouf. “But this has not deterred the USA, the UK and other states, including France, Spain and Italy, from continuing transfers of billions of dollars’ worth of such arms. As well as devastating civilian lives, this makes a mockery of the global Arms Trade Treaty.”

Three years into their war on Yemen, Saudi Arabia and its military allies — armed by the US and Britain — could stand guilty of war crimes, Amnesty International said Friday.

The Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in the war on Yemen in 2015, is behind a long string of potential war crimes” documented by Amnesty, said the London-based rights group.

Amnesty said that the opportunity of delivering humanitarian aid to at least 22.2 million people in need of assistance is slim and more than one million suffering from suspected cases of cholera.

Two rights groups in France said on Friday they would take legal action against the French government unless it halts sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia and its ally the United Arab Emirates within two months.

The Amnesty report includes details of a January 27, 2018 attack on the southern province of Taez that hit a family home.

The coalition used a GBU-12 laser-guided bomb, weighing 500 pounds, manufactured in the US by Lockheed, according to Amnesty.

All six family members were killed or wounded.

In August 2017, an overnight attack by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition on a residential neighbourhood in the capital, Sanaa, killed 16 civilians and injured 17 others; the majority of the dead and injured were children. In that incident, too, Amnesty International concluded that a US bomb manufactured by Raytheon had been used against a civilian home.