'Obscene' Guards accused of mass border killings

Saudi border guards have been accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopians using small arms and explosive weapons in a campaign that rights advocates suggest may be a crime against humanity.

- Peter Beaumont

The claims are made by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which interviewed dozens of Ethiopian people who said they were attacked while they tried to cross into Saudi Arabia from Yemen. Using satellite imaging, photographs of fatalities from more than 20 incidents, witness testimony by survivors and forensic experts' examination of survivors' wounds, HRW has built up a compelling picture of an escalating campaign of violence.

Witness testimony describes mass fatalities involving large numbers of women and children killed in shelling.

"I saw people killed in a way I never imagined," Hamdiya, a 14-year-old girl who crossed the border in a group of 60 in February, told researchers. "I saw 30 killed people on the spot."

HRW's lead researcher on the report, Nadia Hardman, described the findings as "obscene", adding: "I have never come across something of this nature, the use of explosive weapons including against women and children."

Among the claims are that: