They Fired on us Like Rain

In 2023, Human Rights Watch researcher Nadia Hardman came across a letter the United Nations had sent to the government of Saudi Arabia expressing concern over the killing of Ethiopian migrants who were attempting to enter the kingdom. Migrants from the Horn of Africa had long used the so-called “eastern migration route” through war-torn Yemen in the hope of getting employment in Saudi Arabia – but the UN letter mentioned a mass grave of up to 10,000 in a remote border region. The Saudi government denied the allegations, saying the UN had no dates, and no locations. So, Nadia stepped in to see if she could verify them.  

Nadia couldn’t reach the remote border, so she began interviewing people in Yemen. One of the people she was in touch with began sending her social media videos from the massacre site. Nadia soon called on Human Rights Watch’s digital investigation’s lab for help. In this episode, Host Ngofeen Mputubwele takes listeners through how Human Rights utilized satellite imagery of burial sites, conducted interviews with survivors of the attacks, mined social media, and verified video footage from the border to show how Saudi authorities summarily executed hundreds of unarmed migrants – many of them women and children – in what is likely a crime against humanity.  In the aftermath of the report and the media attention it generated, Germany and the United States ceased funding and training Saudi border guards.  

Nadia Hardman: Researcher, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division at Human Rights Watch 

Sam Dubberley: Managing Director, Digital Investigations Lab at Human Rights Watch 

Devon Lum: Former Assistant Researcher, Digital Investigations Lab at Human Rights Watch