RIYADH (Middle East Eye) – Ahmed still struggles to sleep every night. Nightmares and memories of his perilous journey to Saudi Arabia through Yemen still keep him tossing and turning when he tries to go to bed.
The 25-year-old Ethiopian embarked on the route in order to flee the conflict at home between the Tigray region’s ruling party and the federal government.
Along with thousands of others, he left Ethiopia in November 2022, with one of the closest routes being the Red Sea corridor via Djibouti, leading to Yemen and then Saudi Arabia.
But what he and other asylum seekers didn’t expect was to be met with live fire and beatings by Saudi border guards.
“It was quiet, and we walked along a path with dead bodies lying everywhere; some cut to pieces,” Ahmed told Middle East Eye.
“Then [Saudi border police] began firing at us. I managed to hide, but a girl who was with me was hit and had her shoulder ripped open. She bled to death right next to us. I think she was 15,” he recounted.
During the attack, Ahmed suffered a serious leg injury, while two people died on the trail.
The route into Saudi Arabia and Yemen has been used by Ethiopian refugees and migrants for years, despite the dangers. Initially, a lack of employment and poor economic conditions caused people to leave Ethiopia in search of better opportunities.
However, a deadly conflict in Ethiopia in which Tigrayans were targeted has now made life impossible for many in their home country.
Ahmed became one of over two million people who were displaced from their homes in Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, and either forced into camps or to find an alternative safe place.
Amongst the migrants who left Ethiopia in early 2022 was Mignot, who made his way to Yemen.
In the Yemeni city of Saada, around 90 kilometers from the Saudi border, people have been killed after getting stuck, following failed attempts to reach Saudi Arabia.
It took Mignot around five months to reach the border, where his group faced brutal attacks from border guards.
“We were around 50 people in our group. We left the smuggler prison camp during the call to prayer when the guards look away. Still, I thought we might be safer because there were women and little children walking with us,” the 20-year-old told Middle East Eye.
“First, we heard what sounded like bullets and I saw a few people fall. Everyone began to scream and run, then I heard a loud explosion.
“I remember seeing people screaming in pain, body parts everywhere. I hid among dead bodies and stayed there for hours, soaked in their blood. When it got dark, I got up and ran back in the direction we came from,” he added.
According to Mignot, the dead are left behind and often buried in makeshift mass graves. Meanwhile, families in Ethiopia are left agonising over their disappeared loved ones.
Mignot says that in recent years, it is common to see platforms such as Facebook and Telegram awash with posts in Amharic and Oromo, asking for help finding missing relatives along the Saudi-Yemen border.