Topline
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urged the U.S. on Tuesday to investigate reports that border guards from ally Saudi Arabia are killing, torturing and raping Ethiopian migrants attempting to cross into their country—the latest lawmaker to question the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
Saudi border guards keep watch along the border with Yemen in the al-Khubah area in the southern … [+]
Key Facts
Sanders called the allegations “horrific” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
A report from humanitarian nonprofit organization Human Rights Watch released last Monday alleged that Saudi Arabian border guards have killed “hundreds, possibly thousands” of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross the Yemeni-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023.
The report, which is based on interviews with witnesses and analyses of photos, videos and satellite imagery, alleges that the border guards used explosive weapons and shot people at close range, including women and children, in a “widespread and systematic” “pattern.”
The report argues that if this is official government policy, these killings would constitute a “crime against humanity.”
The report also alleges survivors were tortured, raped or subjected to other inhumane treatments.
A Saudi official told Reuters last week the allegations in the report were “unfounded,” but the country is working with the Ethiopian foreign ministry, which has launched an investigation—Ethiopian authorities called for “restraint from making unnecessary speculations” and touted the country’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Key Background
An estimated 750,000 Ethiopians live and work in Saudi Arabia, according to Human Rights Watch. Many migrate for economic reasons, but some are fleeing human rights abuses from their government and dangerous conflicts, including the current conflict in northern Ethiopia. Many of those migrants have for decades traveled along a migration route known as the “Eastern Route” or “Yemen Route” from the horn of Africa, across the Gulf of Aden, through war-torn Yemen and into Saudi Arabia.
Tangent
Saudi Arabia has long been a strategic partner of the U.S. which provides military training to the Middle Eastern nation and has strong economic ties, particularly when it comes to Saudi Arabia’s deep oil reserves—though those economic ties were tested last year when Saudi Arabia declined to increase oil production, boosting the price of gasoline in the U.S. However that relationship has been highly criticized, including by legislators like Sanders who argue the U.S. shouldn’t have such a cozy relationship with a country rife with human rights abuses. Sanders has specifically criticized Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the Yemeni Civil War where it, along with allies like the United Arab Emirates, have launched over twenty-five thousand airstrikes, often in areas controlled by the Houthi rebel group, which has allegedly received support from Saudi Arabia’s archrival Iran. In late 2022, Sanders attempted to pass a resolution ending U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabia’s military actions in Yemen. The New York Times reported over the weekend that U.S. officials knew about these migrant killings as early as last fall but declined to publicly criticize the Saudi kingdom, citing anonymous sources. The State Department denied that assertion and told the Times, “The United States quickly engaged senior Saudi officials to express our concern,” adding that U.S. officials “have continued to regularly raise our concerns with Saudi contacts.”
Surprising Fact
Some Saudi Arabian border guards allegedly asked migrants which limbs they’d prefer to be shot in before shooting those migrants at close range, according to the Human Rights Watch report.
Further Reading
“They Fired on Us Like Rain”: Saudi Arabian Mass Killings of Ethiopian Migrants at the Yemen-Saudi Border (Human Rights Watch)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/08/29/bernie-sanders-calls-for-us-probe-into-alleged-killings-by-saudi-border-guards-latest-criticism-of-saudi-government/