In April, U.S.-made bombs destroyed a detention facility that held Ethiopian migrants in Yemen, crushing bodies and shredding limbs. Amid official silence, the survivors are left wondering why.“The place and everyone in it were mangled,” said Fanta Ali Ahmed, 32, from the Tigray region of Ethiopia. He was injured in April in the bombing of a migrant detention center in Saada, Yemen.Credit...Shuaib Almosawa for The New York TimesThey Fled War in Ethiopia. Then American Bombs Found Them.In April, U.S.-made bombs destroyed a detention facility that held Ethiopian migrants in Yemen, crushing bodies and shredding limbs. Amid official silence, the survivors are left wondering why.“The place and everyone in it were mangled,” said Fanta Ali Ahmed, 32, from the Tigray region of Ethiopia. He was injured in April in the bombing of a migrant detention center in Saada, Yemen.Credit...Shuaib Almosawa for The New York TimesShuaib Almosawa and Vivian NereimShuaib Almosawa reported from Saada, Yemen, and Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.July 12, 2025The men awoke in the middle of the night to the roar of warplanes.Fear was nothing new to Fanta Ali Ahmed, who was trapped with more than 100 migrants in a rickety prison. After civil war reached his home region of Tigray in Ethiopia in 2020, he had fled along one of the world’s most dangerous smuggling routes.He had hoped to reach Saudi Arabia, across the Red Sea. Instead, as he passed through Yemeni territory ruled by the Houthi militia, he was arrested and sent to a migrant detention center in northern Yemen.For weeks in March and April of this year, he heard American airstrikes nearby, targeting Yemen in a campaign against the Houthis, who are backed by Iran. But this was the closest the planes had ever come.

Common migration routes to Saudi Arabia from Ethiopia In 2024, the U.N. recorded more than 60,000 migrants arriving in Yemen from the Horn of Africa. Sources: Migration route information from the International Organization for Migration. Houthi boundaries from the Institute for the Study of War and AEI's Critical Threats Project. By Daniel Wood




When multiple 250-pound bombs hit the prison on April 28, tearing through the roof, Mr. Fanta fell to the ground, he recalled. At first, he thought he was the only one hurt. He later realized that he was one of the luckier ones. Ten people close to him were killed, while others were left with limbs hanging by shredded skin, he said.“The place and everyone in it were mangled,” said Mr. Fanta, 32, who survived with two broken legs and a broken arm. “I don’t know why America bombed us.”Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.Vivian Nereim is the lead reporter for The Times covering the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. She is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.A version of this article appears in print on July 13, 2025, Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Fleeing War in Ethiopia, Refugees Get Caught Up In an Airstrike in Yemen. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | SubscribeRelated ContentAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT