Dear friends,
They were giggling, laughing, singing together. It was their big day. Little children, celebrating graduation from summer school.
But now they're dead. Murdered. Buried in 40 tiny graves.
Their
school bus was bombed to pieces by Saudi Arabia in Yemen. And the Saudis called it a "legitimate military operation".
Yes, they really did! But it gets worse -- experts just confirmed that
the bomb that killed these kids was Made in the USA! And the U.K., France, Canada and a slew of others are supplying Saudi with tanks and missiles.
So we're going to take them to court! A small, tenacious group is suing the UK government for selling weapons to Saudi. But they're working on a shoestring -- and they
need our urgent help to take this to the finish line and beyond. If they win -- and they could -- it'd be an
incredible precedent we could take from court to court, and country to country.
It's on us! Chip in just the cost of a meal, something most families in Yemen won't have today -- if we raise enough we could
make these kids' murder a turning point to stop the Saudi war machine.
In Yemen people are starving to death -- 8 million rely completely on aid to survive, over a million people have contracted cholera, and 2 million kids are out of school. And yet dozens of our governments keep selling weapons to the Saudis. And the war keeps raging.
But even in this horrific context, the attack on a school bus is an unforgivable new low. These kids were on their way back from a summer camp -- now they're dead, dismissed as a side-effect of what Saudi is calling "a legal action" to target people they say planned a previous attack.
Avaaz has campaigned to stop this horror for years. Now
we have a unique chance to get a court in the UK to hold the government accountable for their arms deals fuelling these sickening crimes against humanity. And then take it global!
No one else has the size and scope to run campaigns and back the cases across the world. Chip in now:
Yemen is literally on its knees, and today 40 more families are mourning their darling children's murders. A video that one of the dead boys took just before the attack is haunting, but it reminds us that children are children everywhere. If our governments are fuelling their deaths, let's join together to stop them.
With hope and determination,
Christoph, Danny, Marigona, Alice, Allison, Camille and the rest of the Avaaz team
More information:
Bomb that killed 40 children in Yemen was supplied by the US (CNN)
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/17/middleeast/us-saudi-yemen-bus-strike-intl/index.html?no-st=1534614042 Saudi-led strike kills dozens of children on school field trip in Yemen (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/09/middleeast/yemen-bus-intl/index.html UK government could be forced to ban Saudi arms sales after campaigners win right to appeal ruling (The Independent)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-arms-sales-saudi-arabia-yemen-unlawful-court-appeal-ruling-a8336326.html Horror Multiplies in Yemen (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/opinion/yemen-saudi-attack-port-houthis.html 44 Small Graves Stir Questions About U.S. Policy in Yemen (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/world/middleeast/saudi-yemen-bomb-bus-children.html 
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