News - World: Germany ended a training programme for Saudi border forces, who have been implicated in the mass killing of migrants at the country’s border with Yemen, after it was alerted to reports of “possible massive human rights violations”, the German interior ministry has said.

In a statement to the Guardian, the ministry said training undertaken by the federal police service for the Saudi border force had been “discontinued after reports of possible massive human rights violations became known and, as a precaution, are no longer included in the current training programme [for Saudi security forces]”.

The German statement follows mounting international concern over allegations by UN experts and human rights groups that Saudi border forces have killed hundreds of people-trafficked migrants trying to cross the border in the last three years, claims Saudi Arabia has denied.

Although it was not clear when Germany  decided to end the training, reports that Saudi security forces were firing on migrants attempting to cross the border from Yemen first began emerging in 2020, and increased in 2022-23.

Recently, Saudi border forces accused of killing hundreds of people trying to cross the border from neighboring Yemen received training from Germany and the US.

Despite growing concern over the scale of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia under the country’s crown prince and prime minister, Mohammed bin Salman, both the German federal police service and the US military have been involved in training Saudi border forces implicated by the UN and human rights NGOs in mass killings.

Significantly, the US training agreement – the funding for which ended last month – stipulated that the US was required to monitor how its training was being used, with those receiving training only allowed to operate defensively, to protect themselves and their sites from an attack.

The scale of the abuses was revealed by Human Rights Watch in a shocking report earlier this month. It alleged that Saudi border forces had used explosive weapons to target mainly Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross the border from Yemen, claims that have been denied by Saudi Arabia

Source: The Guardian