Social media campaign to boycott Emirates airlines gains traction

A Twitter campaign has sparked a call for boycotting Emirates Airlines in response to the UAE's involvement in war crimes in Yemen's five-year-long conflict. 

 Twitter hashtags such as  #boycott_Emirates_airline and #YemenisDemandKickOutTheUAE have been trending on the social media site, urging travellers to boycott the airline and other Emirates products so as not to help finance one of the UAE's best-known brands.

Human rights organisations and activists have long accused the UAE and the Saudi-led military coalition of war crimes in Yemen, including airstrikes on homes, market places, schools and hospitals.

Senior Yemeni officials have now joined the campaign following the UAE's recent airstrikes against Yemeni government forces in Aden and its support for southern separatists.

Since the start of the coalition’s involvement in the conflict in March 2015, tens of thousands of Yemenis have been killed, most of them civilians. Millions more have been driven to the brink of famine in what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.