Saudi Arabia Guards ‘Blew Up’ Scores Of Fleeing Migrants At Yemen Border
LAGOS AUGUST 21ST (NEWSRANGERS)-Saudi border guards fired rockets at migrants crossing from Yemen in a campaign of barbaric killings, a major new investigation has found.
Crowds of migrants fleeing turmoil in the Horn of Africa were allegedly shot with rifles and blown up with rocket launcher-like weapons as they sought to cross by land into the wealthy Gulf state.
Border guards also forced teenagers to rape fellow migrants and made others choose which limb they wanted to be shot in, according to testimony from 42 survivors collated by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The allegations on the Yemen border will raise serious questions in Downing Street, which has invited Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, for a state visit this autumn, the first since he was accused of ordering the killing and dismembering of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
HRW says in a graphic 79-page report that Saudi border guards “systematically” fired mortar and rocket launcher-like weapons on crowds of Ethiopian migrants as they sought to cross by land into the wealthy Gulf state from war-torn Yemen.
‘It wasn’t a bullet they were shooting’
“I saw people killed in a way I have never imagined,” said Hamdiya, a 14-year-old survivor.
“Immediately after we arrived [at the border], they [the Saudi border guards] fired on us… A lot of people were dying. In a group of 200 migrants only 50 people survived,” said Dahabo, a 20-year-old economic migrant.
He added: “It wasn’t a bullet they were shooting. It was thrown from the back of a car, like a bomb. It kills a lot of people. They fired on a lot of people.”
Saudi Arabia has been tackling a surge in migration at its border with Yemen, where it has been bombing Iranian-backed Houthi rebels since 2015.
The HRW report noted that the rebels in Yemen had been helping to smuggle mostly Ethiopian migrants who arrived by boat from Africa to the border with Saudi Arabia.
The report found that the “widespread” attacks have been ongoing since March 2022 and that the number of deaths clearly numbered in the hundreds, but could potentially be in the thousands. The organisation said they could potentially amount to a crime against humanity by Saudi Arabia under international law.
Britain and other Western allies have this year sought to smoothe over relations with the powerful Saudi leader despite his alleged role in the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi, a charge that he vehemently denies.
The West is attempting to improve relations with Saudi Arabia to ease tensions in the Middle East with Israel and prevent the gulf state from becoming too close to China.
HRW said it did not receive a response from Saudi Arabia when it put the allegations to the Kingdom ahead of the report’s publication. The Telegraph approached the Saudi foreign ministry, media ministry and Saudi embassy in London but had not received a response as of Sunday night. The Telegraph also contacted the London embassy by phone but no one answered.
‘Some people were torn in half’
Graphic video footage and photographs shown to The Telegraph by HRW showed survivors of the alleged Saudi attacks with horrific injuries to their limbs and face. An image taken in the aftermath of one such attack showed wounded migrants and at least one lifeless body in the back of a truck.
A survivor of one of the alleged Saudi attacks near the border, who was not identified by name in the report, said: “First I was eating with people and then they were dying… there are some people who you cannot identify because their bodies are thrown everywhere. Some people were torn in half.”
Weapons experts consulted by HRW researchers said the migrants’ injuries appeared to be consistent with those sustained by explosive ammunition and gunshots.
The overwhelming majority of the victims originated from Ethiopia, having crossed into Yemen over the Gulf of Aden and from there headed north to the Saudi border.
Some 750,000 Ethiopians work in Saudi Arabia, a figure that mainly consists of economic migrants but also a significant number of Ethiopians fleeing internal conflict.
HRW’s report was also critical of people smugglers and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen, who financially extort Ethiopians and then take them to camps on the Yemen side of the border for attempted crossings into Saudi Arabia.
As part of its research, HRW also used satellite imagery to locate large numbers of grave sites where victims of the alleged massacres were buried.
“Saudi officials are killing hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in this remote border area out of view of the rest of the world,” said Nadia Hardman, a refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW.
“Spending billions buying up professional golf, football clubs, and major entertainment events to improve the Saudi image should not deflect attention from these horrendous crimes,” she added.
Though human rights groups have documented killings of migrants near the Yemen border since 2014, HRW said the most recent attacks “appear to be a deliberate escalation in both the number and manner of targeted killings”.
“If there is no justice for what appear to be serious crimes against Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers, it will only fuel further killings and abuses,” Ms Hardman added.
It is unclear why the Saudis would resort to tactics as brutal as those outlined in the report. When human rights groups have previously published reports making similar accusations, Saudi border.
Some 750,000 Ethiopians work in Saudi Arabia, a figure that mainly consists of economic migrants but also a significant number of Ethiopians fleeing internal conflict.
HRW’s report was also critical of people smugglers and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen, who financially extort Ethiopians and then take them to camps on the Yemen side of the border for attempted crossings into Saudi Arabia.
As part of its research, HRW also used satellite imagery to locate large numbers of grave sites where victims of the alleged massacres were buried.
“Saudi officials are killing hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in this remote border area out of view of the rest of the world,” said Nadia Hardman, a refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW.
“Spending billions buying up professional golf, football clubs, and major entertainment events to improve the Saudi image should not deflect attention from these horrendous crimes,” she added.
Though human rights groups have documented killings of migrants near the Yemen border since 2014, HRW said the most recent attacks “appear to be a deliberate escalation in both the number and manner of targeted killings”.
“If there is no justice for what appear to be serious crimes against Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers, it will only fuel further killings and abuses,” Ms Hardman added.
It is unclear why the Saudis would resort to tactics as brutal as those outlined in the report. When human rights groups have previously published reports making similar accusations, Saudi officials have dismissed them outright.
The Telegraph
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Posted by News Rangers
on Aug 21 2023. Filed under International, National.
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