The Court of Appeal has today declared that UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia because they contributed to civilian casualties in indiscriminate bombing in Yemen. The government was accused the UK government by the judges for licensing sale of arms when there is a clear breach of international law

Ruling was made by senior judges Lord Justice Irwin and Lord Justice Singh who said the government “made no concluded assessments of whether the Saudi-led coalition had committed violations of international humanitarian law in the past, during the Yemen conflict, and made no attempt to do so”.

It means new licences cannot be made to Saudi Arabic and current licences will only need to be reviewed.

The ruling follows a challenge brought by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), who response was, “we welcome this verdict but it should never have taken a court case brought by campaigners to force the government to follow its own rules.

“The bombing has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. UK arms companies have profited every step of the way. The arms sales must stop immediately.”

Lloyd Russell-Moyle, a Labour backbench MP who was in court for the ruling, said that it was a “damning judgement” and that he would now press for a full public inquiry into the legality of UK arms sales to Yemen.

The UK government has stated that they will appeal the court verdict.

The UK has licensed the sale of at least £4.7bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since the start of the civil war in Yemen in March 2015, with most of the recorded sales taking place before 2018.

Latest figures estimate that the death toll in the complex civil war in Yemen since 2016 is fast approaching 100,000 – although there is currently a ceasefire – with nearly 11,700 civilians killed in attacks that have directly targeted them.