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. "Saudi officials are killing hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in this remote border area out of view of the rest of the world," HRW researcher Nadia Hardman said in a statement. Last year, UN experts reported "concerning allegations" that "cross-border artillery shelling and small arms fire by Saudi Arabia security forces killed approximately 430 migrants" in southern Saudi Arabia and northern Yemen during the first four months of 2022. In 2015, Saudi officials mobilised a coalition to topple the Huthis, who had seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa from the internationally recognised government the previous year. 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.

Source: Ethiopian News August 21, 2023 08:27 UTC