British government can ‘no longer deny’ Saudi atrocities in Yemen

The British government can “no longer deny” violations of international humanitarian law by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

The United Nations released a report on Tuesday, proving that the Saudis are targeting civilians and civilian objects such as refugee camps, weddings, buses, residential areas, medical facilities, schools, mosques, markets, factories, in Yemen.

On Wednesday, HRW released a report stating that the revelations released by UN reinforce former evidence that Saudi Arabia keeps violating humanitarian laws and even laws of war.

Over the last few months, the British government has been under fire for denying all claims against Saudi Arabia’s human rights records and continuing arms sales to its biggest customer.

Last summer alone, Britain sold over 1.5 billion dollars worth of missiles, rockets, and bombs to Riyadh.

The rights group calls on the UK to “immediately halt the transfer of any weapons and military equipment to Saudi Arabia and other coalition states that have been used to commit the documented violations.”

HRW also stated that the British government should “end its disingenuous stance on investigations.” The group added that Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has repeatedly stressed that the UK supports the “proper investigations of alleged laws-of-war violations,” but as yet there has been no evidence of the UK carrying out any manner of investigation into Riyadh’s violations in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia began its military aggression against Yemen in late March last year. The strikes are supposedly meant to undermine the Ansarullah movement and restore power to the fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Some 8,300 people have been killed and over 16,000 others injured since the strikes began. The Saudi war has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s infrastructure.

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