Saudi Arabian border guards have killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants attempting to enter through its shared border with Yemen, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports.
A Saudi official said on Monday that HRW's allegations are "unfounded and not based on reliable sources."
HRW's 73-page report states the violent response to Ethiopian migrants using mountain tracks to cross the border are "continuing," "widespread," and "systematic."
"People told me that they witnessed killing fields: bodies scattered all over the mountain area...people blown in half," Nadia Hardman, the report's author, said. "[Since 2022, there has been a] deliberate escalation in both the number and manner of targeted killings."
Saudi guards allegedly used guns and explosives to kill migrants.
The report used 350 videos, photos, and satellite imagery for research. HRW was not able to access imagery of the area where the alleged killings took place on the Yemen-Saudi border, however.
An estimated 750,000 Ethiopians live in Saudi Arabia, according to the United Nations (UN). Many Ethiopians have left their home country due to economic hardship and a "brutal conflict" in its northern province of Tigray, Reuters reports:
The migration route from the Horn of Africa, across the Gulf of Aden, through Yemen and into Saudi Arabia - one of the richest countries in the Arab world - is a well-established corridor for Ethiopian migrants.
A spokesperson for the United States State Department said the U.S. raised concerns to the Saudi government about migrant killings and urged them to undergo a transparent investigation.
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