When Theresa May touched down in Riyadh yesterday morning, she did so with a combination of the usual kind words about her hosts and a specific promise to raise the issue of the devastating blockade that the Saudi regime has inflicted on Yemen.

The last three weeks have seen a Saudi-imposed military blockade on Yemeni ports, which has stopped vital humanitarian aid from getting to the millions of people that need it. The situation is dire, with research from Save the Children finding that 130 Yemeni children are dying every day from malnutrition, extreme hunger or disease.

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It is a measure of how terrible things have become that even the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has called it “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”. However, despite their concerns, it is a crisis in which May, Johnson and their cabinet colleagues have been utterly complicit.

As soon as the Saudi-led bombing campaign began almost three years ago, the then foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, pledged that the UK would support it “in every practical way, short of engaging in combat”. Despite a change in personnel in Westminster, it is a promise that has been kept.

Since then, the UK has licensed over £4.6bn-worth of fighter jets, bombs and missiles to Saudi forces. These include Eurofighter Typhoon jets, which are playing a central role in the bombardment, and Paveway IV bombs, which are being dropped from the sky by UK-trained pilots.

There is no doubt that these arms have been used against civilian targets. Reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have linked UK bombs to attacks on civilian infrastructure, while a UN expert panel has accused the Saudi military of “widespread and systematic” violations of international humanitarian law.

Despite the mounting death toll and the growing evidence of abuses, the arms sales have continued. In fact, despite their professed concerns for the people of Yemen, the government’s priorities couldn’t have been clearer.

Timeline Yemen's civil war Show Hide 2011 An Arab Spring-inspired uprising forces Yemen’s authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to agree to leave office. 2012 Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, previously Saleh’s deputy, takes over as president following an election. He was the only candidate. He struggles to unite the country’s divided political landscape, cope with food insecurity and al-Qaida threats.

2014 Houthi rebels (who belong to the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam) make advances and begin capturing the north of the country, an area they have historically controlled. In September they enter the capital, Sana’a. Hadi flees to Aden.

2015 A renewed rebel offensive forces Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia, which views the Houthis as an Iranian proxy force. It begins bombing what it says are “military targets” associated with the Houthis and forces loyal to Hadi’s predecessor, Saleh. The Saudi air campaign receives backing from a coalition of Sunni Arab states, as well as logistical support from the US, UK and France.

June 2016 The Saudi-led coalition is included on a UN blacklist of states and groups that violate children’s rights in conflict, reporting it is responsible for 60% of child deaths and injuries. After Riyadh protests, the UN removes it from the list. Human Rights Watch warns of “political manipulation”. At least 6,200 people have been killed, 2.8 million displaced.

October 2016 An airstrike by the Saudi coalition hits a funeral in Sana’a, killing 140. The UN announces a 72-hour ceasefire, which is allegedly broken by both sides.

2017 Devastated by two years of fighting, Yemen is described by the UN as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Millions facing famine and the threat of cholera.

November 2017 Saudi Arabia imposes a blockade on Yemen’s ports, following the firing of a missile at Riyadh from rebel-held territory in Yemen. Medicines, vaccines and food are prevented from entering the country. The heads of the World Food Programme, Unicef and the World Health Organisation warn “untold thousands of innocent victims, among them many children, will die”.

Rebecca Ratcliffe

Last October, a Saudi missile attack killed 140 people at a funeral in Yemen, turning a scene of mourning into a massacre. Not a single arms licence was suspended. Only six weeks later, May visited the Gulf Cooperation Council with a commitment to “go even further” in working with Saudi and the other dictatorships that are taking part in the bombing.

This September, even as the worst cholera outbreak on record was sweeping through Yemen, UK government ministers and civil servants were rolling out the red carpet and welcoming the Saudi military to London to buy weapons at the Defence & Security International (DSEI) arms fair.

Only last month the then-defence secretary, Michael Fallon, went as far as to urge other MPs not to criticise Saudi Arabia in case it undermined or jeopardised negotiations to sell more fighter jets.

These certainly aren’t the actions of a government that is doing all it can to help people in Yemen. They also imply that even as Yemeni people are starving, there is little doubt that arms sales will be on the agenda.

Of course, the issue is bigger than the individual choices of Theresa May. For decades now, governments of all political colours have offered an uncritical political and military support to the Saudi royal family. That may be one reason that May’s government has acted so hypocritically and shamefully. But it’s certainly not a justification.

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There is no doubt where public opinion stands. Poll after poll has shown an overwhelming majority of Britons oppose these arms sales. Over the last few years this opposition has started to be reflected in parliament, with Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP and the Greens all sharing a commitment to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

After almost 1,000 days of bombardment and pain, a peaceful solution is needed more than ever for Yemen. Will Theresa May show the leadership required to break with the past and end the arms sales? If not, then what more would it take? History will look back on these atrocities as totally preventable. How many more will need to die before May and her colleagues finally stop putting arms company profits ahead of Yemeni lives?

• Andrew Smith is a spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT)