Saudi border guards have killed “hundreds” of Ethiopian migrants trying to enter the prosperous Gulf monarchy via the border with Yemen since last year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday.
Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians work in Saudi Arabia. Sometimes they take the “eastern route” from the Horn of Africa to the Gulf, passing through Yemen, a poor country that has been 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 that are being spent” on sports and entertainment “to improve Saudi Arabia’s image” should not distract from “these terrible crimes,” she castigated.
NGOs regularly accuse Riyadh of investing in major sporting and cultural events to “distract” from gross human rights abuses and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, in which the Saudi army is involved.
The “widespread and systematic” killing of Ethiopian migrants could even constitute a crime against humanity, the NGO believes.
The Saudi authorities did not respond to inquiries from AFP in this case.
Last year, UN experts reported “worrying allegations” that “cross-border artillery and small arms fire by Saudi security forces killed around 430 migrants” in southern Saudi Arabia and northern Yemen in the first four months of 2022.
North Yemen is largely controlled by the Houthis, rebels who have been fighting the Saudis in support of pro-government forces since 2015.
HRW relies on interviews with 38 Ethiopian migrants attempting to cross into Saudi Arabia from Yemen, as well as satellite imagery, videos and photos posted to social media “or collected from other sources.”
Respondents spoke of “explosive weapons” and gunshots at close range, with Saudi border guards asking Ethiopians “which part of their body they would most like to be shot at.”
These migrants tell of horrific scenes: “Women, men and children scattered across the mountain landscape, seriously injured, dismembered or already dead,” reports HRW.
“They shot at us, it was like rain (of bullets),” says a 20-year-old woman from Ethiopia’s Oromia region, 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 to save our own lives.”
HRW is urging Ryad to “stop immediately” using deadly force against migrants and asylum seekers and calling on the UN to investigate the allegations.