Ethiopia | The cripples of Burka Tirtiraa

Hundreds of Ethiopian migrants, “at a minimum”, have fallen under the bullets of Saudi border guards in recent years, according to the UN and Human Rights Watch, while trying to reach Saudi Arabia in search of a better future. In a rural town in eastern Ethiopia, our collaborator met survivors who returned after being seriously injured. Neither these survivors nor the families of the deceased have received justice.

(Burka Tirtiraa) At 19 and 23 years old, Wezera Mohamed and Mustafa Sufiyan form a battered couple. By lifting her right sleeve, the young woman reveals the raised scars left by successive operations to repair broken bones. A plastic prosthesis replaced her husband’s left half-leg. These residents of Burka Tirtiraa, in eastern Ethiopia, were victims of bullets from Saudi border guards.

Like many Ethiopians, Wezera and Mustafa hoped to escape their laborious fate as farmers harvesting just enough to feed themselves. So, they allowed themselves to be fooled by the lies of the smugglers, endured the mistreatment inflicted by them, watched helplessly as they called their parents to ask for more money and, finally, they worked for several months in Yemen, An essential step on the itinerary of these migrants to complete the required sum…

When the big evening arrived, Wezera and Mustafa, who did not yet know each other, were driven a few kilometers from the Saudi border. On the other side, the promised Eldorado.

“We heard explosions. The smugglers told us to run,” Mustafa recalls.

Of the 45 migrants who attempted to enter Saudi Arabia that night in 2021, only three survived. These crimes continued: the UN reports 430 deaths and 650 injured between 1^er January and April 30, 2022.

Victims testify to avoid further tragedies

On October 3, 2022, the UN Special Rapporteur’s office wrote to the Saudi government, urging it to “end what amounts to a policy of large-scale and indiscriminate use of excessive force and lethal perpetration with firearms.” More recently, in August 2023, a Human Rights Watch report claimed that “between March 2022 and June 2023, Saudi border guards killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who attempted to cross the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Faced with media excitement, the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the opening of an investigation, in collaboration with Riyadh.

However, no “returners” from Burka Tirtiraa were questioned. However, there are more than ten of them, according to Sufiyan Usme, mayor of this town of 150,000 souls.

“We want to obtain justice, but we do not have the means,” summarizes Zamzama Abdujalil.

The farmer’s voice breaks when she talks about the cruel fate that the Saudis reserved for her eldest child, who also left in search of a better future. “We learned of his death on Facebook. I don’t know where his body is, if it was buried, eaten by animals or thrown away…” laments the woman who has made it her mission to prevent new departures. Little by little, the testimonies of the injured begin to bear fruit. “We organize public meetings where we broadcast documentaries telling what happens to our young people who try to go to Saudi Arabia or South Africa,” continues the mayor.

A city built thanks to Saudi riyals

For Amhedin Yusuf, Mustafa’s former biology teacher, lack of education is the first trigger.

“In fact, the majority of houses, businesses and vehicles in Burka Tirtiraa were financed by our neighbors who worked in Saudi Arabia,” he emphasizes.

Mohamed Ahmed is one of the lucky ones. Past the dusty khat market, countless wandering goats in search of the slightest piece of trash, a herd of camels and flocks of children in clothes worn by successive generations, stands his building with coral walls.

“ I crossed the Saudi border in 2012. At the time, it was easy,” admits the thirty-year-old, despite the various twists and turns of his journey. For four years, he worked as a goat herder, snack seller, tailor and even a mason, paid at the whim of the bosses. This illegal alien was finally arrested and deported to Ethiopia. But the savings and accumulated experience allowed him to open the electronics store that supports him today with his wife.

A feeling of shame

In Burka Tirtiraa, the Saudi dream is not dead. Inseparable friend of Mustafa, Lelissa Ahmed limps at his side. The projectile from the Saudi guards paralyzed his right thigh. “If I wasn’t injured, I would try to go back,” confides the 18-year-old survivor, in the living room of the modest family home. In the meantime, shame eats away at him. “I even have to ask my parents to top up the credit on my phone,” he complains.

Mustafa, too, blushes at being hung up on his father’s funds, who combines a job as a water deliveryman and the cultivation of his plot of sorghum, corn and khat. A philosopher, he concludes: “I went to Saudi Arabia to change my life. When I lost my leg, my future became dark. The only chance I have left is to resume my studies. »

To chase away painful memories, he prefers to remember his meeting with Wezera, at the Yemeni hospital where the two survivors were treated. The couple is expecting their first child.