Egyptian police detain Sudanese woman trying to cross into Israel
August 6, 2007 (CAIRO) — Egyptian police detained a Sudanese woman as she tried to cross the border into Israel with her 2-year-old daughter on Sunday, Egypt’s official news agency reported.
Police identified the woman as Merry Demis Locko, 27, a Sudanese refugee from the war-torn Darfur area, the Middle East News Agency said.
The arrest comes three days after an Israeli television station reported seeing Egyptian soldiers killing four Sudanese refugees, beating two of them to death in front of horrified Israeli soldiers. The other two were killed when Egyptian soldiers opened fire on them, the TV reported. The incident was filmed by army surveillance video and interviews with the soldiers.
Egyptian police told The Associated Press that authorities arrested two Sudanese refugees Thursday, seriously injuring one when he scuffled with police.
Without specifically mentioning the incident, a spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday accused the Israelis of trying to “drive a wedge” in Egypt’s relations with Sudan. The spokesman did not confirm or deny the Israeli media report.
But he said the Egyptian government was implementing laws to try to stem an increasing influx of Sudanese refugees trying to cross into Israel.
Hundreds of Sudanese refugees, many from the war-wracked Darfur region, have crossed the desert border from Egypt into Israel in recent months.
Last month, Egyptian border guards shot and killed a Sudanese woman and wounded four others. She was the first Sudanese refugee to be killed.
Israel estimates that 2,800 people have entered the country illegally through its Sinai Peninsula border in recent years, nearly all from Africa. The number shot up in the past two months, apparently as word spread of job opportunities in Israel. As many as 50 people arrived each day in June, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Many Sudanese find life difficult in Egypt, a country that struggles to provide jobs and social services for a growing refugee population. Egyptian riot police violently cleared a refugee encampment in central Cairo in 2005, killing nearly 30 people.
(AP)