Yemen

The Republic of Yemen has not signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Yemen participated in two meetings of the Oslo Process, the international conference in Lima in May 2007 and the Belgrade conference for states affected by cluster munitions in October 2007.

During the Lima conference, Yemen stated that the international community must push forward its work on the prohibition of cluster munitions. During discussions of victim assistance, the representative of Yemen recalled a story of a young girl who lost her hands and eye to a submunition, emphasizing the horrific consequences of cluster munitions for civilians, especially children.^[1]

Yemen did not attend even as an observer the formal negotiations of the convention in Dublin in May 2008, and did not attend the signing conference in Oslo in December 2008. Yemen has not made a public statement about why it has not signed yet.

Yemen is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Yemen is not believed to have used or produced cluster munitions. It appears that Yemen does have a stockpile. Jane’s Information Group reports that KMG-U dispensers that deploy submunitions are in service with the country’s air force.^[2] Moldova exported 13 220mm Uragan multiple rocket launch systems to Yemen in 1994, but it is not known if these include versions with submunitions.^[3] There are unconfirmed reports that Yemen is affected by cluster munitions.