More than 520 Ethiopian nationals have been sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Saudi Arabia and are awaiting execution, according to Amnesty International. The non-governmental organization also notes that Saudi Arabia ranks third in the world for the number of executions carried out between 2022 and 2025, after China and Iran.
This is the highest number of foreigners executed by Saudi authorities, according to the organization’s data on Ethiopians sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. Thousands of Ethiopians go to Saudi Arabia to find work, usually as unskilled laborers. They travel along the dangerous eastern route linking the Horn of Africa to the Gulf oil monarchy via Yemen.
Authorities in Riyadh announced on Friday that they had executed two Ethiopians convicted of drug trafficking, a week after executing five of their compatriots convicted of the same crime. Five others were executed in June and the same number in July. Thus, the total number of Ethiopians executed this year reached 34.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) often calls on the kingdom to change the death sentences of dozens of foreigners, especially Ethiopian citizens, convicted of “non-violent” crimes, mainly drug trafficking. Riyadh says the death penalty is necessary to maintain order and ensures that it is applied only after all legal avenues have been exhausted.