- Saudi Border Guards Accused of Killing Ethiopian Migrants
- Allegations of Systematic Abuses and Crimes Against Humanity
- Saudi Government Denies Accusations, Calls Them Unsubstantiated
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Monday that Saudi border guards opened fire “like rain” on Ethiopian migrants attempting to cross into the Gulf kingdom from Yemen, murdering hundreds since last year.
The allegations, characterized as “unfounded” by a Saudi government source, suggest a significant increase in abuses along the treacherous route from the Horn of Africa to Saudi Arabia, where hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians reside and work.
A 20-year-old woman from the Oromia region of Ethiopia told Human Rights Watch that Saudi border guards opened fire on a group of migrants they had just released from detention.
“They opened fire like a deluge. “When I recall, I cry,” she explained.
“I saw a man pleading for assistance; he was missing both legs. He was shrieking and asking, “Are you abandoning me?” Please do not abandon me. We could not assist him because we were in mortal danger.”
HRW researcher Nadia Hardman stated in a statement, “Saudi officials are killing hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in this remote border region, hidden from the rest of the world.”
Spending billions on purchasing professional golf courses, football clubs, and major entertainment events to improve Saudi Arabia’s image should not detract from these heinous crimes,” she said.
A source within the Saudi government told AFP that the allegations were unreliable.
“The allegations included in the Human Rights Watch report about Saudi border guards shooting Ethiopians. As they crossed the Saudi-Yemeni border are unsubstantiated and based on unreliable sources,” said an anonymous source.
“Suspicious allegations”
The New York-based organization has documented abuses against Ethiopian migrants in Saudi Arabia and Yemen for nearly a decade. But the most recent murders appear to be “widespread and systematic” and may constitute crimes against humanity, the organization said.
In the first four months of 2022, experts from the United Nations reported “concerning allegations” that “cross-border artillery shelling and small-arms fire by Saudi Arabia security forces killed approximately 430 migrants” in southern Saudi Arabia and northern Yemen.
Under an agreement between the two nations, the repatriation of Ethiopians from Saudi Arabia began in March of that year. The Ethiopian foreign ministry expects 100,000 Ethiopians to come home in the next months.
According to the HRW report, letters sent to Saudi officials were ignored. Northern Yemeni Houthi rebels accused border police of “deliberate killings of immigrants and Yemenis” in response to HRW’s letter.
Migrants told the rights group that Houthi forces worked with people smugglers and “extorted” them or held them in detention centers where they were “mistreated” until they paid an “exit fee,” according to the rights group.
The Houthis denied collaborating with human traffickers, labeling them “criminals.”
Saudi officials mobilized a military coalition in 2015 to halt the advance of the Iran-backed Houthis, who had captured the internationally recognized government’s capital of Sanaa the previous year.
The UN calls Yemen’s humanitarian crisis one of the world’s worst, with millions reliant on help.
Charcoal fire
A truce that began in April 2022 and lasted until October would have generated many HRW-described violations.
The HRW report is based on interviews with 38 Ethiopian migrants who attempted to enter Saudi Arabia from Yemen. Also satellite imagery, social media-posted videos and photographs, and “other sources.”
The report lists 28 “explosive weapons incidents” described by interviewees, including mortar projectile attacks.
Some survivors said Saudi border officers asked Ethiopians “in which limb they would prefer to be shot.”
“All interviewees described scenes of horror: women, men, and children strewn across a mountainous landscape, severely injured, dismembered, or already dead,” the report stated.
Other accounts detailed rapes under duress and beatings with rocks and iron rods. HRW called on Riyadh to stop killing migrants and asylum-seekers and for the UN to investigate the deaths.
