'Saw People Killed In A Way I Never...': Saudi Border Guards Accused Of Massing Killings Of Ethiopians — Report

"All interviewees described scenes of horror: women, men, and children strewn across the mountainous landscape severely injured, dismembered, or already dead," the report said.

New Delhi: Saudi Arabia border guards have killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers using small arms and explosive weapons since last year, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Monday.

The New York-based group cited eyewitness reports of attacks by troops and images that showed dead bodies and burial sites on migrant routes, saying the death toll could even be “possibly thousands”.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 38 Ethiopian migrants and four relatives of people who attempted to cross the border between March 2022 and June 2023 who said they saw Saudi guards shoot at migrants or launch explosives at groups.

"All interviewees described scenes of horror: women, men, and children strewn across the mountainous landscape severely injured, dismembered, or already dead," it said.

One 20-year-old woman from Ethiopia's Oromia region said Saudi border guards fired on a group of migrants they had just released from custody.

"They fired on us like rain. When I remember, I cry," she said.

"I saw a guy calling for help, he lost both his legs. He was screaming; he was saying, 'Are you leaving me here? Please don't leave me.' We couldn't help him because we were running for our lives."

According to 2022 statistics from the International Organisation for Migration, some 750,000 Ethiopians live in Saudi Arabia, with as many as 450,000 likely having entered the kingdom illegally, reported news agency AP.

The two-year civil war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region displaced tens of thousands of people.

As per the report, the group also analysed over 350 videos and photographs posted to social media or gathered from other sources filmed between May 12, 2021, and July 18, 2023. It also examined several hundred square kilometres of satellite imagery captured between February 2022 and July 2023.

“These show dead and wounded migrants on the trails, in camps and in medical facilities, how burial sites near the migrant camps grew in size, the expanding Saudi Arabian border security infrastructure, and the routes currently used by the migrants to attempt border crossings,” the report said.

The United Nations has already questioned Saudi Arabia about its troops opening fire on the migrants in an escalating pattern of attacks along its southern border with war-torn Yemen.