Egyptian troops keep murdering African refugees

Posted on June 19, 2008
Filed Under Africa, Israel, Middle East, News, Terrorism

No main stream media news channel or newspaper is speaking about it and human right groups don’t really seem to give a damn, but the brutal murder of African refugees, who are making their way to Israel in search for a better life and often a protection from persecutions in their home countries, continue.

The refugees from several African countries (Ivory Coast, Congo, Ghana and others) but mainly from Eritrea and Sudan, reach the border of Israel and Egypt after a perilous journey through the Sinai desert – the border that has long turned into a killing field; the border where the sand is soaked with the blood of the people gunned down or beaten to death by the Egyptian border troops, who prevent their fellow Africans to cross into Israel by any, and often the most simple (for the soldiers) way possible – shooting to death

An Egyptian security official said border guards shot and killed an unidentified man trying to sneak into Israel and arrested 12 African migrants also attempting the journey.

The official from North Sinai’s police department said the man, who did not have identification, was shot Thursday when he ignored calls to stop.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Emad Kharboush, a medical official at el-Arish hospital near the Israeli border, said the man died after sustaining a gunshot wound to the chest.

The official said 12 African migrants were also arrested Thursday as they tried to sneak into Israel, including four from Sudan, three from the Ivory Coast, three from Nigeria and two from Ghana.

Shot in the chest…If he ignored the calls to stop (according to the Egyptian murderous police), how come he got shot in the chest? Was he running backwards?

Think about it: a man, tired, facing Egyptian soldiers who are armed to their teeth, and they cannot apprehend him? What a brave Egyptian soldiers, shooting a weary man (or woman, in some other cases), whose only weapon was probably a small bag of clothes…ignored calls to stop…

Just a couple of days ago we posted this story of the Sudanese Minister of defense calling for Egypt to boost its military and police presence in peacekeeping force in Darfur. There, we listed a number of incidents of murder of the African refugees by the Egyptian border troops, reported by the several media outlets (including the CNN, but strangely they didn’t follow up on it).

Imagine if Israel shot a refugee at the border…Imagine the US border patrol shooting a Mexican trespasser – first page headlines and “breaking news” alerts guaranteed.

Meanwhile, the killing of the African refugees by the Egyptian soldiers remain a local issue, and like every local issue in the Middle East, it goes by the principal “don’t ask, don’t tell”…and like it always happens when it comes to the suffering of the Africans, the world will pay attention only when the dead bodies are too many to ignore.