Arms Dealers Make Record Profits While Thousands Die Daily

What's the story?

• According to an Oxfam report, the world's top five arms exporters have earned $85 billion this year, while 9,000 people die from conflict-driven hunger worldwide daily.
• The top five-arms exporters are the U.S., Russia, France, China, and Germany, and they account for over three-quarters of global arms sales.
• Brenda Mofya, from Oxfam, said:

"For four of the five permanent members of the Security Council to top global arms sales that fuel wars around the globe is hypocritical, complicit, and immoral. Their guns and bombs are not only killing innocent civilians in conflict-torn countries but starving those who survive."

Rising arms spending

• Oxfam reports that total global military spending reached $2.2 trillion last year and $112 billion for global arms imports between 2018-2022, enough to cover the UN humanitarian appeal of $51.7 billion more than 42 times.
• Amidst global tensions, UK arms sales reached a record £8.5 billion in 2022, with £2.7 billion worth going to Qatar.
• According to the human rights group Freedom House, 54% of the arms go to countries designated "not free" and with a poor human rights record, like Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
• Sam Perlo-Freeman, a researcher at Campaign Against Arms Trade, said:

"The latest export license figures for 2022 show that the U.K. arms industry is working overtime to arm some of the world's most authoritarian regimes as well as countries engaged in armed conflict, with the U.K. government's full approval."

• Global weapons exports in 2018-2022 grew 4.8% over the previous decade.

Growing rates of conflict-driven hunger

• In South Sudan, military spending rose by more than 50% in 2022. During that time, 7.7 million people (63% of the population) faced extreme hunger. 
• During 2018-2022, conflicts killed nearly 48,000 civilians and drove almost 90 million civilians from their homes. Ongoing conflict and civil wars have been the source of extreme hunger for 117 million people in 19 countries in 2022 alone.  

Is the U.S. doing enough to promote global human rights?

—Emma Kansiz