FRENCH dockers refused to load a deadly cargo of ammunition onto a ship bound for Saudi Arabia today, as pressure mounted on its government to stop selling arms to Riyadh.

Members of the CGT union at the southern port of Marseille pledged to remain “faithful to their history and values of peace” as they blocked the shipment.

The dockers said they would “not load any weapon or any ammunition for war whatsover” as the Saudi ship Bahri Tabuk became the latest to leave a French docks without its cargo.

The Bahri Yanbu left port at Le Havre two weeks ago minus an arms shipment including Caesar cannon. Attempts to load the boat with parts for drones were also halted by strike action by dockers in the Italian port of Genoa.

A legal bid was also launched to stop the munitions from leaving Marseille by rights group ACAT which argued it was a breach of a UN treaty outlawing the use of arms against civilians.

“The Bahri Tabuk is due to load French weapons for Saudi Arabia, one of the main belligerents in the Yemeni conflict. ACAT is … mobilising and calling on civil society and local networks to prevent these munitions from going to Saudi Arabia,” it said.

French President Emmanuel Macron is under pressure to stop the arms trade with Saudi Arabia, whose four-year bombing campaign against Yemen has devastated the country and led to UN investigations over war crimes.

Over 10,000 civilians have been killed since the start of the Western-backed war which has seen Yemen brought to the brink of the worst global famine in a century.

Despite this Mr Macron’s Defence Minister Florence Parly defended the continued arms sales in an address to the National Assembly on Tuesday, telling parliamentarians that she was willing to continue “the partnership with Saudi Arabia.”

Mr Macron has consistently denied knowledge of French weapons being used against civilians, insisting they are only used in “defensive situations.”

However a leaked report detailing classified military documents alleged that Mr Macron was made aware that French arms had been used in deadly attacks in which civilians were killed in September 2018.

French authorities summonsed three journalists from the Disclose NGO after they published the articles in what has been described as “intimidation tactics” to silence criticism of the government’s role in the deadly war.