A project exploring the UK’s deep and multifaceted involvement in the war in Yemen since 2015, primarily through its military, intelligence and political support for the Saudi-led coalition’s military intervention.
In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the UAE led a coalition of nine primarily Middle Eastern and North African states in a military intervention in the war in Yemen. Operation Decisive Storm came at the request of exiled Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi after Houthi insurgents captured the capital, Sana’a, and the transitional government collapsed. The Saudi-led coalition subjected Yemen to airstrikes and a full sea, land and air blockade, supported politically and militarily by the United States, United Kingdom and a range of other states. US and UK involvement has run particularly deep, with both providing weapons, intelligence and logistical support, as well as a military presence at the Saudi command and control centre.
While US-UK support for Saudi Arabia and intervention in Yemen have a long history, the war since 2015 has been particularly deadly for civilians. The conduct of the coalition garnered international criticism from the start, due to high levels of civilian harm and a failure to observe the humanitarian principles of distinction, proportionality and military necessity. Yemeni and international civil society actors documented significant violations of international humanitarian law through airstrikes on civilian objects and as a result of the blockade. Indeed, the Yemen Data Project has collected data on over 25,000 airstrikes by the coalition between 2015 and 2022, with the UN estimating that the war had killed 377,000 people by the end of 2021.
Our project brings together a large collection of documents relating to US-UK military and political involvement in the Yemen war, primarily through its support for the Saudi-led coalition. Many of these documents shed light on the impact of the war on Yemeni civilians, UK military training of the Royal Saudi Air Force, the history of UK military relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, the legal challenge by Campaign Against Arms Trade in relation to UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia, and decision-making within government about the implementation of UK arms export rules.
