As leaders of the UK opposition parties, we call on the government to stop fuelling the war in Yemen

The UK has awarded at least £4.6bn of arms export licences to Saudi Arabia. Now Yemen stands on the brink of catastrophe

Dear Foreign Secretary,

We write to you on the fourth anniversary of the start of the War in Yemen with regards to the UK government’s ongoing support for the government of Saudi Arabia, and its coalition partners, who are parties to this devastating, long-standing conflict.

We welcome your recent visit to Yemen, the first by a western foreign minister, and welcome the meetings that you attended such as with the director of the World Health Organisation. However we feel compelled to bring your attention to a letter from last October that was sent by our colleagues Stephen Gethins, Emily Thornberry, Christine Jardine, Caroline Lucas, and Jonathan Edwards and that raised the humanitarian situation in Yemen with you, and the UK’s direct complicity in fuelling this conflict for profit.

We refer you, once again, to the crimes committed in the Yemen conflict by a UK ally since the start of this conflict four years ago.

It has been reported that half of all children in Yemen aged between six months and five years are chronically malnourished. There are 17,640 UN-documented civilian casualties in Yemen. The majority of these casualties, estimated at 10,852, were victims of Saudi-led Coalition assaults. There are 20 million people who don’t know if they’re going to be able to get their next week’s supply of food, and 85,000 children are estimated to have died of starvation in the country. These are statistics that you drew attention to during your visit to Yemen.
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