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National Round-Up: Danish pension funds pouring billions into foreign arms manufacturers

Luke Roberts
December 10th, 2020


This article is more than 4 years old.

The manufacturers involved supply weapons to the UAE and to Saudi Arabia – two countries heavily involved in the conflict in Yemen

The conflict in Yemen has destroyed the lives of millions of people (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

A new report from Oxfam IBIS has revealed that the 15 largest pension funds in Denmark have invested almost three billion kroner in foreign weapon manufacturers supplying Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

This has taken place despite the fact that all weapons exports to the countries from Denmark have been banned since 2018.

A humanitarian disaster 
Since 2015, between 100,000 and 230,000 have died as a result of the war in Yemen between a Saudi Arabian and UAE led coalition and the local Houthi rebel movement.

It is estimated that 80 percent of the country’s 28 million inhabitants are now in desperate need of emergency aid. With widespread starvation and a lack of medical resources leading the UN to describe it as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Dirty money 
“What is happening in Yemen is a disaster, and all our pension money is being invested in companies that make money selling gunpowder, bullets and other equipment needed to continue the war,” says Kristian Weise, secretary general of Oxfam IBIS.

“It must be stopped because, as it is now, several million Danish pension customers are helping to keep the war in Yemen running, and I think that very few Danes actually want to have their pension remunerated by contributing to war and murder in Yemen,” he continued.


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