The non-governmental organization (NGO) Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday that Saudi Arabian border guards killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants on the border with Yemen in just over a year.
The NGO also defended that “the systematic abuses against Ethiopians [na Arábia Saudita] may constitute crimes against humanity.
“Saudi border guards killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian asylum seekers and migrants who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023,” HRW said in a statement.
The NGO called on the United Nations to launch an investigation and demanded Saudi Arabia “immediately and urgently revoke any policy on the use of deadly force against migrants and asylum seekers.”
The report concludes that “Saudi border guards used explosive weapons to kill many migrants and shot others at point-blank range, including many women and children, in a widespread and systematic pattern of attacks.”
The same document states that “in some cases, Saudi border guards asked the migrants which member they should shoot and then shot them point blank.”
HRW researcher on refugee and migrant rights Nadia Hardman, quoted in the report, said that “spending billions to buy professional golf courses, soccer clubs and large entertainment events to improve the image of Saudi Arabia should not divert attention from these horrendous crimes.
Some 750,000 Ethiopians live and work in Saudi Arabia and, “although many emigrate for economic reasons, others have fled due to serious human rights violations in Ethiopia, particularly during the recent brutal armed conflict in the north of the country,” he stresses. the NGO.
The homicides “seem to result from a deliberate escalation, both in number and in the form of targeted killings,” he accused.
Some of those traveling in smaller groups or alone said that as soon as they crossed the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, Saudi border guards, armed with shotguns, fired at them. Others claimed that the guards beat them with stones and metal bars. More than a dozen interviewees witnessed or were shot at point blank range. Six were hit by explosive weapons and gunfire.
Some of the witnesses cited in the report said Saudi border guards beat the survivors.
“A 17-year-old boy claimed that border guards forced him, along with other survivors, to rape two girls, who were also survivors, after the guards executed another migrant who refused to do so,” the document says.
Source: TSF
