APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Hundreds of migrants largely Ethiopians have been killed by Saudi border guards as they were trying to enter the Kingdom from neighbouring Yemen, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in a chilling report.
The migrants and asylum seekers in question were crossing the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023, HRW alleged in a report released on Monday.
The rights group said it interviewed 42 Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers and analyzed over 350 videos and photographs posted on social media, as well as satellite imagery before it released the report.
Together, HRW said it showed evidence of dead and wounded along the migrant trail, in camps and medical facilities, as well as burial sites and “expanding Saudi border security infrastructure” in the area.
Videos shared on TikTok and Facebook purport to show dead bodies along the migrant trail near the Yemen-Saudi border, as well as migrants with wounds consistent with injuries from explosive blasts or gunshots, according to a forensic pathologist.
HRW claimed to have sourced and verified the videos.
Several videos purportedly recorded near an informal migrant camp appear to show Saudi border guard posts, and newly constructed fences next to one.
HRW further said that satellite imagery obtained by the nonprofit organisation also indicated growing graveyards nearby.
“Saudi border guards have used explosive weapons indiscriminately and shot people at close range, including women and children, in a pattern that is widespread and systematic.
If committed as part of a Saudi government policy to murder migrants, these killings would be a crime against humanity,” HRW warned in their report, adding that the violence appeared to be ongoing.
The Saudi government has denied the allegations of killing and torture.
MG/as/APA