This latest slaughter highlights Britain’s shameful role in the Yemen war

Protest against UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia


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On 21 January, air strikes from the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition were blamed for killing over 200 people in the “U.S.-backed conflict” in Yemen. One report said the bombings targeted a prison “holding mostly migrants”. The report says they also bombed and killed children as they played football. Following these attacks, the medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders said one hospital was:

so overwhelmed that they can’t take any more patients

As extensively reported by The Canary, the UK arms industry has a vested interest in this conflict. And this latest slaughter highlights Britain’s role in Yemen, as Labour MP Kate Osamor tweeted:

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The travesty unfolds

The AFP News Agency reported on the attack and the extensive loss of human life:

Meanwhile this human rights activist posted this video claiming to be of a bombing on a civilian home:

British complicity

Moreover, this image analyst service posted shocking “before” and “after” images. It claims these are images of a football field hit during the strike. And it listed the countries, including the UK, it felt were responsible:

This protest in Huddersfield, which took place on Saturday 22 January, also pointed a finger at the UK and called on it to stop arming Saudi Arabia:

And rapper and Mint Press News podcast host Lowkey drew attention to the UK’s overall responsibility in this war:

Meanwhile, this twitter user called for the International Criminal Court to hold the UK responsible:

How is the UK getting away with this?

This war in Yemen has been raging for over seven years, with the death toll approaching 400,000 people. Yet it appears as if little pressure is being brought against the UK for its complicity. If the international community is actually serious about planning “a brighter future in Yemen”, then the UK’s role in supplying and benefiting from the war needs to be front and centre. And the UK needs to be held accountable.

Featured image via Flickr – Alisdare Hickson cropped to 770 x 403, licenced under CY BB 3.0.

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  • Show Comments

      1. Why would Mr Starmer do that, given his position? He knows that the entire media, especially The Guardian, support him in returning the Labour party to its centre-left roots, and his own upbringing and instincts are pro-capital. He would more likely strip naked and run through the House of Commons than ‘call the government to account’.

        As for the photographs of the miniscule protests over the UK’s role in slaughtering men, women and children in Yemen, why do they even bother, other than quelling their own consciences? Over a million turned out in 2003 to stop our soldiers indulging their sadistic impulses in Iraq and look how that went.

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