UK Sold Over $7Bln Worth of Arms to Saudi-Led Coalition Since 2015 - Reports

15:52 GMT, 29 March 2019

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United Kingdom sold at least 5.7 billion pounds ($7.45 billion) worth of arms to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen since the start of the war in 2015, Sky News reported, citing figures released by the UK Department of trade agreements and compiled by a UK anti-arms trade organisation.

Sputnik

According to figures from the UK Department of International Trade, compiled by the Campaign Against Arms Trade organisation and released by Sky News, the UK government licensed 4.7 billion pounds worth of arms to Saudi Arabia alone.

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Another 1 billion pounds worth of arms were sold to other members of the coalition. According to the media outlet, the total figure of UK arms sales could be much higher because the UK government sold the arms to the coalition through a type of open license that allows an uncapped number of items to be sent to the receiving country over five years.

The UK government is not obliged to disclose the total value of the licenses once they end, the outlet said.

The Saudi-led coalition has been engaged in the civil war in Yemen since March 2015, when it started to carry out airstrikes against the Houthi armed rebels at the request of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

The Yemeni civil war has claimed over 7,000 lives, while over 20 million people in Yemen currently in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates.