Saudi border guards have since 2022 killed “hundreds” of Ethiopian migrants trying to enter the wealthy Persian Gulf monarchy through its border with Yemen, the human rights NGO said Monday, August 21. Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians work in Saudi Arabia, sometimes taking the “eastern route” from the Horn of Africa to the Gulf, passing through Yemen, a poor country at war for more than eight years.
“Saudi authorities are killing hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in this remote border area, out of sight of the rest of the world,” HRW migration specialist Nadia Hardman said in a statement. The “billions spent” on sports and entertainment “to improve Saudi Arabia’s image” should not distract from “these horrific crimes”, she blasted.
NGOs regularly accuse Riyadh of investing in major sporting and cultural events to “divert attention” from serious human rights abuses and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen where the Saudi military is involved. The “widespread and systematic” murder of Ethiopian migrants could even constitute a crime against humanity, the NGO believes.
The Saudi authorities did not respond to requests from AFP on this case.
horror scenes
UN experts have reported “worrying allegations” that “cross-border artillery fire and small arms fire by Saudi security forces killed around 430 migrants” in southern Arabia Arabia and northern Yemen during the first four months of 2022.
Northern Yemen is largely controlled by the Houthis, rebels whom the Saudis have been fighting since 2015 in support of pro-government forces.
HRW relies on interviews with 38 Ethiopian migrants who tried to cross into Saudi Arabia from Yemen, satellite images, videos and photos posted on social media “or collected from other sources”.
Interviewees spoke of “explosive weapons” and point-blank shooting, with Saudi border guards asking Ethiopians “what part of their body they would prefer to be shot at.” These migrants recount scenes of horror: “Women, men and children scattered in the mountainous landscape, seriously injured, dismembered or already dead”, reports HRW.
“They were shooting at us, it was like a rain” of bullets, testifies a 20-year-old woman from the Ethiopian region of Oromia, quoted by the NGO. “I saw a man calling for help, he had lost both his legs,” but, she says, “we couldn’t help him because we were running for our own lives.” .
HRW calls on Riyadh to “immediately cease” the use of lethal force against migrants and asylum seekers, urging the UN to investigate the allegations.
