Amnesty International Condemns Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia

YemenExtra

SH.A.

Amnesty International  condemned arms sales from Western countries to Saudi Arabia and its allies in a war against Yemen, saying such trade makes the global arms trade treaty ridiculous.

The human rights organization accused the forces of the Saudi-American coalition against the Yemeni people of committing possible war crimes during its aggression, which has been going on for more than three years .

“There is ample evidence that the flow of irresponsible arms into the Saudi-led coalition forces has caused enormous harm to Yemeni civilians,” said Lynn Maalouf, Middle East research director at Amnesty International.

“”However, this has not deterred the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries, including France, Spain and Italy, from continuing to ship billions of dollars worth of weapons. This, along with the destruction of civilian life, makes the Arms Trade Treaty ridiculous.” She added .

The organization said it had documented 36 air strikes carried out by coalition forces since 2015 that appeared to violate international law, adding that many of them amounted to war crimes .

According to the organization, they documented attacks killed that  513 civilians, including at least 157 children, and injured 379 civilians .