Saudi border guards have fired “explosive weapons” on Ethiopian migrants trying to cross Yemen into the Gulf kingdom, killing hundreds since last year, New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said on Monday. The 73-page report, entitled They Fired on Us Like Rain, draws on interviews with 38 people, including refugees and asylum seekers, and satellite imagery, videos, and photos posted to social media or “gathered from other sources.” Migrants interviewed for the study described 28 “explosive weapons incidents” in which they were targeted by gunfire or mortar projectiles, sometimes at close range. Survivors also said they were asked what limb they would prefer to be shot.
The allegations, which Riyadh did not immediately comment on, point to a significant escalation of abuses along the perilous “Eastern Route” from the Horn of Africa to Saudi Arabia, where hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians live and work. Many of those Ethiopians flee poverty and severe human rights violations in their home country, which has been wracked by civil war since 2014 between Houthi rebels and the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, with support from a U.S.-led coalition. The war, which has killed tens of thousands, has largely stalled in recent months as the Saudi-led coalition seeks to negotiate a peace deal with the Houthis.
Human Rights Watch, which urged the Saudi government to investigate the claims and demand an end to the killings, said that if the allegations were true and were being done as part of a policy, it would be a “crime against humanity.” The rights group called for Riyadh to urgently revoke any policy of using lethal force on migrants and for a UN-backed investigation into the abuses.
The rocky, mountainous area along the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia has become one of the most dangerous places in the world to try to reach the prosperous Gulf kingdom. In addition to a growing number of people who are being stopped or killed by Saudi security forces, the smugglers who help refugees and migrants reach their destinations often abandon them in the remote and hostile terrain, where the groups are vulnerable to attack from armed bandits, Houthi militiamen and even local people with grievances.
The Saudi government is trying to prevent the smuggling of people into the country, which it believes is fuelling extremism and threatening national stability. At the same time, it is facing rising unemployment among its young people and is attempting to curb mass migration, which economic factors have also fueled.
In its harrowing report, HRW says it has seen many bodies strewn across the hardscrabble trails near Sadaa, a city in northern Yemen almost entirely by the Saudi border. Its inhabitants have been repeatedly abused on the journey to the kingdom.
The report was compiled by interviewing 38 people, including refugees and asylum seekers who had tried to make the dangerous journey over the past three years. It also analyzed over 350 videos and photographs on social media and several hundred square kilometers of satellite imagery.