Ethiopia

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WARNING

This video contains violent images and descriptions including people being shot at, and dead bodies. Viewer discretion advised.

Actor’s Voices have been used to protect the identity of the people Human Rights Watch interviewed for the film.

Audio recording, Actors’ Voice:

Even when I remember, I cry. I saw a guy calling for help, he lost both his legs. He was screaming and saying, “are you leaving me here? Please don’t leave me.” We couldn’t help him because we were running for our lives.

Voiceover:

Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers have been tortured, injured or killed by Saudi Arabian border guards at the Yemen-Saudi border. At least hundreds have been killed trying to make this crossing between March 2022 and June 2023.

Audio recording, Actors’ Voice:

When Saudi border guards see a group, they fire continuously, when they kill everyone, they go down to collect all those who didn't die. This is what happened to me. I survived, and they came to meet me and showed me the dead. Then they took us to a detention center and beat us all there.

Voiceover:

Human Rights Watch’s extensive investigation includes firsthand accounts from 42 people, and the verification and geolocation of over a hundred videos and photos and the analysis of hundreds of square kilometers of satellite imagery. We found evidence that Saudi border guards have used explosive weapons and shot people at close range.  In what appears to be a policy targeting migrants and asylum seekers, including women and children, at the border. Human Rights Watch believes this may amount to crimes against humanity. Saudi Arabia’s border forces should stop intentionally using lethal force, to kill Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers with explosive weapons.

Audio recording, Actors’ Voice:

It was during the night. We were traveling towards the Saudi border. Then we saw Saudi border guards. They told us to stop. While they walked towards us, they opened fire and fired bullets at us. One bullet hit a rock and hit my leg. My leg is broken around my knee.

Voiceover:

While many migrate for economic reasons, including drought, a number of Ethiopians have fled because of serious human rights abuses by their government, including during the recent, brutal armed conflict in northern Ethiopia.

Audio recording, Actors’ Voice:

When the firing stopped the Saudi border guards took us. In my group there were seven people, five men and two girls. The border guards made us remove our clothes and told us to rape the girls. The girls were 15 years old. One of the men refused. The border guards killed him on the spot. I participated in the rape, yes. To survive I did it. The girls survived because they didn’t refuse. This happened at the same spot where the killings took place.

Voiceover:

This dangerous migration route, often referred to as the 'Eastern route', spans from the horn of Africa, across the Gulf of Aden,

through Yemen and into Saudi Arabia. Migrants and asylum seekers

crossing into Saudi Arabia usually do so in the mountainous border area, aided by a network of smugglers and traffickers and facilitated by the Houthi forces

who control northern Yemen.

Audio recording, Actors’ Voice:

We walked in the mountains for about five days. We walked in groups, minimum 300 people, and most of the group was female. Then there was firing from the border guards, and they were firing big rocket launchers at us. It was like a bomb.  Of the 300 people, 150 died.

Voiceover:

Smugglers operating in Yemen take people to two informal camps before attempting to cross the border. Al Thabit camp is located northwest of the border, and Al Raqw camp has only a river separating it from Saudi Arabia. Both camps act as holding areas with thousands of people preparing to cross the border.  Many interviewees said Houthi forces controlled the entry and exit into the camps and would often extort bribes from the

migrants or transfer them to detention centers. Migrants and asylum seekers often saw Saudi border guards patrolling the crossing points in large vehicles with what witnesses described as large objects mounted on the back of their vehicles, believed to be weapons. Human Rights Watch interviewed survivors who say they lost one or more limbs due to the use of explosive weapons or shootings at the border.

Audio recording, Actors’ Voice:

The Saudi border guards were firing big things like mortars at us. They fired from the back of a truck. We lost 130 people that day, the majority were women and children.

Voiceover:

Although the number of deaths has not been confirmed, Human Rights Watch has identified at least eight burial sites near Al Raqw camp and has counted at least 287 graves on satellite images as of June 2023.  Many have described bodies being buried in remote areas or left unburied along the route. They describe a pattern of large scale violence and cross-border killings. This video was sent to and verified by Human Rights Watch. The video shows the bodies of at least two migrants hidden under bushes just north of the trail from Al Thabit camp in Saudi Arabia. A likely Saudi border guard post is visible approximately 1.3 kilometers away from where the bodies were found. 

Voiceover:

Humanitarian assistance and safe passage should be provided to migrants and asylum seekers trying to cross the border from Yemen to Saudi Arabia, and those responsible for what may amount to crimes against humanity should be held accountable.

Women resident, Division

Voiced by and actor

“The Dansha mayor… he kept telling us that we need to move, that we don’t belong to stay here.”

 

Man, Farmer, Division

Voiced by and actor

“They took all my cattle, burned my sorghum (crops) and house, and told us this is not our region. They said our land is east of the Tekeze River.”

 

Woman resident, Baeker

Voiced by and actor

“They kept saying every night… ‘We will kill you. Go out. Go out of the area.”

 

Warning

This video contains violent and disturbing events.

Viewer discretion advised.

 

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In early November 2020, conflict broke out between the Ethiopian military and regional security forces from the country’s northern Tigray region.

 

Voice Over

The fighting followed years of growing tensions between the Ethiopian federal government, led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and leaders of Tigray’s ruling political party.  

Government forces were soon joined by security forces from the Amhara region, which neighbors Tigray, as well as soldiers from the country of Eritrea.

The conflict has resulted in numerous abuses on both sides and millions of people displaced.  

 

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Individuals responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the conflict should be fairly prosecuted.

 

Voice Over

Initially, heavy fighting between the Ethiopian military with their allies against Tigrayan fighters took place around Western Tigray.

Electricity, banking, and telecommunications, including the internet and phone lines to Tigray were cut off.

Residents described heavy shelling and gunfire as Ethiopian and allied forces entered their towns. 

 

Man, Animal trader, Adebai

Voiced by and actor

“When the Ethiopian and Amhara forces entered the town, people were panicked and began running to the farms. They started killing people, no warning just shooting. They shot at people running.”

 

Voice Over

Soon, an interim administration for Western Tigray, was established by forces from the neighboring Amhara region. An administration hostile to the presence of Tigrayans.

 

Man, Farmer, Ruwassa

Voiced by and actor

“Papers said Tigrayans need to leave the town immediately. They were thrown everywhere, so when we woke up in the morning, you would see it on your door, or on the way to church, everywhere.”

 

Woman, Hairdresser, Dansha

Voiced by and actor

“I was in Dansha town where I have a hair dressing shop. Six militia came to loot my shop. Two of them raped me. They said ‘You Tigrayan, you should disappear from the land west of Tekeze. You are evil and we are purifying your blood.’”

 

Man, Farmer, Division

Voiced by and actor

“In the first 2 months of their control, they looted everything in the town. All the crops, they took our cows, we had nothing to eat, everything we had was taken.”

 

Woman resident, Humera

Voiced by and actor

“The militia would even write on the houses that belonged to Tigrayans. This is ours; this is Amhara house. They told us not to speak in Tigrinya.”

 

Voice Over

Meanwhile, as reports of atrocities became widespread, Ethiopian authorities limited access to Western Tigray for international journalists, and human rights and humanitarian groups.

 

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Humanitarian organizations should have immediate and independent access to Tigray, including to all detention facilities.

 

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In Adi Goshu town in January 2021, Amhara special forces and militias rounded up around 60 residents, transported them to the Tekeze bridge and shot them.

 

Man, Survivor, Adi Goshua

Voiced by and actor

“The Amhara Special Forces told us to disembark… They lined us up in rows, cocked their guns and sprayed us with bullets. We fell in the ditch below. After that, they said… ‘the Tigrayans don’t die easily. Shoot again.’”

 

Voice Over

As abuses in Western Tigray continued, hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans were forced to flee their homes. Some fled to Sudan, while many more were forcibly displaced to other parts of Tigray in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign.

 

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Ethiopia’s federal and regional authorities have dismissed allegations of acts of ethnic cleansing and human rights violations in Western Tigray.

 

Woman, Beer Seller, May Humer

Voiced by and actor

“After seeing this and other incidents, I thought: What are we expecting? Are we waiting for them to kill all of us? Why don’t we cross the Tekeze River while we still have our lives?”

 

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Throughout this conflict, thousands of Tigrayans have been arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned.

In June 2021, Ethiopian and allied forces withdrew from much of Tigray, but not Western Tigray.

Detentions of Tigrayans in Western Tigray escalated.

 

Man, Manual worker, Humera

Voiced by and actor

“We couldn't access the toilets; they didn't give us any food or water. A lot of people were falling ill. There were some people that died from torture. They tie your hands and feet, they hit you in your testicles, your head, your chest, all of us went through it.”

 

Voice Over

Tigrayans in Western Tigray continue to be subjected to torture, arbitrary detention, and other grave human rights abuses.

 

Man, Farmer, Sheglil

Voiced by and actor

“All I want is peace. All I want to do is to be able to speak Tigrinya freely, my mother tongue. I am a beekeeper, and all I want to do is work.”

 

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The ethnic cleansing of Tigrayans from Western Tigray, which began in November 2020, needs to stop.

All communities in Western Tigray need protection.

Safe conditions should be established to allow Tigrayans to voluntarily return to their homes.