The rights group said children were among civilians “killed and maimed” by such submunition, urging global assistance to clear contaminated areas and the coalition to stop using such bombs.
Advertisement
Amnesty International has written to the British prime minister, David Cameron, and other senior ministers, after it uncovered evidence that the Saudi Arabia-led coalition may have used UK-manufactured cluster bombs in Yemen.
Britain has ratified an global treaty prohibiting the use of cluster bombs, which scatter smaller bombs over a wide area. He said the weapons described in Amnesty’s report were decades old, and that it was now illegal to use or supply such bombs under British law.
Cluster bombs have been subject to a global ban since 2008.
Answering an Urgent Question, in the Commons, defence minister Philip Dunne said the United Kingdom last delivered cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia in 1989 and no longer supplied, manufactured or supported them.
The coalition launched a military campaign against Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels in March past year after they seized several provinces of Yemen, including Sanaa, and closed in on President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in his refuge in the southern city of Aden.
Since the war against Yemen’s Shiite rebels known as Houthis began, more than 6,000 people in Yemen have been killed.
The human rights group said during its recent mission it documented 10 new cases in which 16 civilians, including nine children, were killed or injured by cluster munitions between July 2015 and April 2016.
Saudi Arabia is now not a member of the convention, but under global humanitarian law, the Kingdom, and the coalition it leads, must not use indiscriminate weapons that pose a threat to civilians.
Mark Goldring, Oxfam GB chief executive, said the Amnesty report was evidence that British arms sales were adding to suffering in Yemen.
Advertisement
“The UK is not a member of the Saudi-led coalition”.
