A number of people have gathered in protest against an arms event taking place in Newport on Thursday
11:36, 03 Sep 2026Updated 12:08, 03 Sep 2026
A number of people have gathered on the road leading to the ICC in Newport in protest against an arms fair taking place there on Thursday(Image: John Myers)
Protesters have glued themselves to the road leading to Wales’ biggest convention centre on Thursday as they protest against an arms fair.
People have been pictured using their bodies to block traffic entering the Celtic Manor Resort and International Convention Centre Wales (ICC Wales), where the Defence Security Resilience Cymru summit is being held today. Police have said a 72-year-old woman from Caerphilly has been arrested at the scene.
Peace activists, anti-war groups, and local residents arrived outside the venue early this morning with the aim to stop what they call a “Welsh Government arms fair” from taking place.
Protestors can be seen holding signs that read “Arms kill children and innocent people. Stop this death economy.”(Image: John Myers)
The event has attracted exhibitors from across the defence industry.
Plaid Cymru has been criticised for being part of organising the event alongside a subsidiary of General Dynamics – one of the world’s largest arms companies and a supplier of weapons to the Israeli military.
Protestors who are against Wales hosting such an event have been pictured on the bridge with a number of police officers.
With them they have brought signs, banners and Welsh flags.
Signs also read ‘Stop the genocide'(Image: John Myers)
A police spokesperson said: “Gwent Police is aware of an ongoing protest outside the Defence Security Resilience Cymru event being held in Newport.
“Our officers are in attendance to facilitate a peaceful and safe gathering.
“A 72-year-old woman from Caerphilly has been arrested on suspicion of breaching the peace and remains in police custody at this time.”
One of the campaigners, Christina Jenkins, a 33 year old carer from Newport, said: “The UK and Welsh governments are complicit in genocide. The weapons we produce kill civilians around the world, whilst our oil and gas extraction destroys our future and is already killing people across the world now. We won’t stand for these genocidal industries when we’re meant to be a nation of sanctuary.
The biggest threat to national security in the UK is the climate crisis, not our lack of weapons. The Senedd should listen to them and grow Welsh jobs in industries that don’t profit off of killing innocents. We need more careers in renewable energy, public transport, affordable housing and rebuilding public services. Any money spent on funding war means less for these desperately needed industries.”
Leigh Evans, a retired emergency nurse paramedic from Swansea, said: “We are disgusted that the Senedd would use taxpayers’ money to fund a weapons fair. Over half of people killed in modern warfare are innocent civilians and arms companies at this event are actively supplying genocides and apartheid states around the world.
The weapons makers at this market place of murder profit from killing innocent people at taxpayers expense. To be Cymry is to resist oppression and therefore war, so it us up to us, the Cymry, the true nation and true believers in Heddwch/peace, to make this non-violent stance against the industrial murder complex.”
Another protester said: “I was born in Casnewydd and have lived most of my life here. I’ve watched not only my country, Cymru, be turned into a testing/training ground for genocidal military and weaponry, but now my hometown is being hijacked to allow warmongerers to make profit on weapons that will most definitely take countless lives of children and parents. I cant stand by and let England’s colonialism continue to have such a chokehold from Casnewydd, to Sudan, to Palestine, Yemen, Congo, Myanmar, Kashmir, Iran, Lebanon, and everywhere else. Liberation now.”
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