A German-owned arms factory in Italy will stop exporting to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates bombs used in the Yemeni war, activists said on Wednesday.
RWM Italia, a subsidiary of German defence company Rheinmetall, produces bombs whose fragments have been found on airstrike targets in Yemen.
“We welcome a decision that should have been taken a long time ago, as we had urged,” the Italian Civil Society Coordination Group said in a statement.
The group includes the Italian chapters of the Amnesty International, Oxfam and Save the Children charities, as well as Italian disarmament campaigners.
According to the ANSA news agency, RWM Italia is complying with an Italian government decision to suspend export licences for aircraft bombs and components to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
ANSA quoted from a letter RWM Italia sent to its employees on Tuesday indicating that the suspension was with immediate effect and will last up to 18 months.
RWM Italia deflected questions about the report to its parent company, and a Rheinmetall spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Earlier in July, Italian Deputy Premier, Luigi Di Maio, of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement said the government had agreed to block Italian bomb sales to countries involved in the Yemeni war.
