Watan-Saudi Arabia is witnessing a new wave of executions that has sparked significant concern among human rights organizations, following reports of death sentences being carried out against African detainees, including Ethiopians and Somalis.
According to accounts from within Najran Prison, near the Yemeni border, approximately 50 prisoners from Ethiopia and Somalia received formal notices warning that their death sentences would soon be carried out. The charges mainly relate to drug trafficking, which carries the death penalty under Saudi law.
One inmate reportedly said:
“The authorities told us to say our goodbyes… We were informed the executions would begin after Eid al-Adha—and now they have.”
Rights sources confirm that at least six executions took place in May, while Amnesty International reported that Saudi authorities executed at least 52 people for drug-related offenses between January and April of this year.
Douaa Dhainy, a researcher at the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights, stated that the kingdom has recently expanded the use of the death penalty to include cannabis possession, calling it a troubling escalation:
“Since 2024, an increasing number of foreigners have been executed over cannabis possession, marking a dangerous shift in Saudi penal policy.”
Saudi Arabia remains one of the world’s top executioners, with over 300 executions recorded in 2024 alone, despite mounting international calls to halt the practice—especially in cases lacking fair trial guarantees.
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