On Wednesday, the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) published a report that said Saudi Arabia is still slaughtering African migrants and Yemenis at its border with Yemen nearly a year after the indiscriminate killings were revealed.
In July 2023, MMC issued a report that said Saudi border guards killed nearly 800 Ethiopian migrants and wounded about 1,700 in 2022. Human Rights Watch followed up with a similar report that said the killings could be a “crime against humanity.”
After the reports were released, the New York Times reported that the US was aware of the mass killings on the border since 2022 but kept quiet. Around the time the US learned of the massacres, the Biden administration was publicly criticizing Riyadh for OPEC oil cuts.
The MMC’s new report says that new evidence “appears to indicate that the Saudi border authorities at their southern border with Yemen are continuing to use live weapons to fire indiscriminately at Ethiopians and Yemenis crossing the border irregularly.”
A ceasefire between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis has held well since April 2022, but Yemeni media frequently reports Saudi shelling at the border in Yemen’s northern Saada province. Yemeni citizens and African migrants are often reported killed.
The news of Saudi Arabia’s continued killings at the border comes after reports said the US is planning to resume offensive weapons sales to Riyadh. The US is also pushing a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal that would involve Washington giving Riyadh a mutual defense guarantee.
This article was originally featured at Antiwar.com and is republished with permission.
