UAE running secret prison in French ECA supported LNG facility in Yemen

(Sum Of Us, Paris, 7 November 2019) - A report published today by L'Observatoire des armements and SumOfUs in collaboration with Les Amis de la Terre France, documents the militarisation of Total's activities in Yemen since the 1980s. Open sources and witness testimony reveal that Total’s gas liquefaction site at Balhaf has been set up as a military base (since 2009) and a secret prison (2017-2018). The report also questions the role of the French government, which was involved in the militarisation of the site, and is the guarantor of Total’s Yemen LNG gas liquefaction project. French export subsidies are currently being discussed in the Assemblée nationale as part of the 2020 Finance Bill. Le Monde reports that Total has received official French export credit guarantees totaling 216 million Euros. Le Monde has drawn information from testimonies collected by Amnesty International, as well as a group of UN experts on Yemen, as well as non-governmental organizations and Yemeni activists who confirmed the existence of the prison inside a military base set up by the UAE in the same place. These reports draw on several accounts of arbitrary detention and inhuman and degrading treatment – such as torture and denial of medical care – by Emirati soldiers.