Yemen war since the beginning of August has culminated into a civilian being killed every three hours and with many more people succumbing to disease and hunger, Oxfam revealed in a report on Friday. It urged United States, Britain and other European states to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
It stated that 575 civilians were killed between August 1 and October 15, including 136 children. “Oxfam is calling on the UK, US and other governments to suspend arms sales to the Saudis because of their disregard for civilian lives in the war in Yemen,” read the Oxfam statement.
The data was collected by the Civilian Impact Monitoring Project, linked to the United Nations global protection clusters.
Saudi Arabia has been under constant condemnation from human rights groups and countries after it launched a war against Iranian supported Houthi rebels since 2015 and worsened the crisis in Yemen further.
Recently, the UN Humanitarian Chief Tuesday warned that Yemen is on the brink of widespread famine, with almost fifty percent of the population surviving on humanitarian aid alone, Al Jazeera reported.
While addressing the Security Council, he said, “there is a clear and present danger of an imminent and great big famine engulfing Yemen”, adding that the famine would be “much bigger than anything any professional in this field has seen during their working lives”.
After Saudi Arabia admitted to killing dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside its Istanbul consulate, rights and aid groups have urged Western states to suspend arms sales to the monarch.
Riyadh is currently, the top buyer of weapons from the United States.
Last week, Germany said it had suspended the export of arms to Saudi Arabia pending “clarification” of how Khashoggi died. France and the US have declined to suspend arms deals with Saudi Arabia.
Paris says none of its arms are used in the Yemen war. The UN estimates nearly 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since 2015. Rights groups, however, say the number could be five times as high.
