Yemen and the global arms trade

A shocking new documentary has just been released, revealing an international weapons trade scandal that goes against international law and arms trade treaties. Journalist Mohamed Aboelgheit spent a year investigating how weapons manufactured in the West and exported to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ended up in the hands of Yemeni militia groups.

According to international treaties, these arms should have never reached Yemeni militia groups. Yet the documentary uncovers how Gulf states have been passing on arms sold to their military to other parties in Yemen for political reasons. Aboelgheit created false Yemeni social media accounts to access informal trading networks and groups. And the evidence he uncovers in the documentary shows that some sellers were eager to emphasize these weapons were brand new and had never been fired – breaching “end user” certification laws designed to prevent exported arms being passed on to third parties.