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Global Development
Saudi border forces accused of killing ‘hundreds of Ethiopian migrants’
Witnesses making the crossing from Yemen report coming under machine-gun fire and seeing rotting bodies
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Fred Harter in Wukro, Ethiopia and Obock, Djibouti
Fri 28 Feb 2025 00.00 EST
Saudi Arabia’s forces are accused of using indiscriminate force against migrants on their borders, with reports of deaths and injuries and multiple accounts of women being raped.
Ethiopian migrants attempting to cross from neighbouring Yemen between 2019 and 2024 have given accounts to the Guardian of coming under machine gun fire and of seeing bodies rotting in the border area.
area.
“I personally saw three people die next to me,” said one Ethiopian, who attempted to cross at night into Saudi’s Najran province with dozens of others in 2022. “One of my legs was blown away by the Saudi fire. There were body parts of the injured and the dead all around me.”
Another migrant talked of sustaining shrapnel wounds to his leg and back. A third alleged witnessing the rape of three Ethiopian women by men in Saudi border guard uniforms. Others described beatings and sexual assault.
Another man, who attempted to cross in January 2023, said: “The journey was particularly horrifying. Along the way, we encountered many decomposing bodies that had been eaten by animals. The border guards continued to fire at us as we walked through treacherous terrain.”
Ethiopian migrants journey on foot through Yemen in July 2019, headed to Saudi Arabia where they hope to find work. Photograph: Susan Schulman
Bullets hit two young women, he said. “One was struck in the chest, and the other was struck in the back of her neck. Both the girls died instantly. Many migrants fell off a cliff while trying to escape. Others were captured or injured by gunfire. We have no idea what happened to them. We don’t know whether the two girls were ever buried.”
The testimonies reflect the findings of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published in August 2023, which found that Saudi border guards killed “hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers” on the southern border with Yemen from March 2022 to June 2023 “in a pattern that is widespread and systematic” using guns and explosive weaponry. The group concluded that these actions may amount to crimes against humanity.
HRW documented one incident when Saudi border guards shot an Ethiopian man who refused to rape two girls after their group survived an explosive weapons attack. They then forced a teenage boy to rape the girls, according to HRW. In another, Saudi border guards asked Ethiopian migrants to choose in which part of their body they preferred to be shot before shooting them at close range.
Satellite imagery from 2023 vshows new graves in the main burial site of Al Raqw migrant camp. Human Rights Watch counted at least 12 graves on 9 February 2022 and at least 72 graves by 23 June 2023. Photograph: Maxar/HRW
“There is a complete culture of impunity and unaccountability at the border,” said Nadia Hardman, who authored the HRW report. “It’s impossible to know the true scale of the killings. No one has independent access to these areas. They are basically off limits.”
A spokesperson for the Saudi Arabian government and the Saudi embassy in Ethiopia have been contacted for comment on the allegations.
Saudi Arabia hosts about 750,000 Ethiopian migrants. More than half are believed to have entered illegally. These irregular migrants endure perilous desert treks and sea crossings and rampant abuses by people smugglers, armed gangs and Yemeni rebel groups before they even reach the Saudi border. Those who make it find low-paid work in construction, on farms and as domestic servants...
https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... n-migrants