520 Ethiopians await execution in Saudi Arabia, Tigray says

The Tigray regional government said Thursday that about 520 Ethiopians sentenced to death for drug trafficking are awaiting execution in Saudi Arabia.

Hayish Sibagadis, head of the Youth Affairs Bureau of the Tigray regional government, said at a press conference that most of those facing execution are from Tigray, in northern Ethiopia.

He said those sentenced to death were either deceived by brokers and drawn into drug trafficking or were accompanying people who were carrying drugs. He also said most were tried without a lawyer, in a language they did not understand, and without an interpreter.

Hayish urged Ethiopia's federal government to ask Saudi Arabia to “show mercy and spare their lives.” The Ethiopian federal government did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday that it had executed two Ethiopians for drug trafficking, a week after executing five others for the same crime. Five Ethiopians were executed in June and another five in July. An AFP tally based on official statements says 34 Ethiopians have been executed in Saudi Arabia in 2026.

Thousands of Ethiopians work in low-skilled jobs in Saudi Arabia. Many take the dangerous Eastern Route from the Horn of Africa to Saudi Arabia via Yemen. Tigray was ravaged by a war from 2020 to 2022 that claimed at least 600,000 lives, according to African Union estimates.