Egypt police shoot Sudanese migrant at Israel border

May 24, 2008 (SMAILIA) — Egyptian police shot and wounded a Sudanese man who tried to cross its border illegally into Israel from the Sinai peninsula on Saturday, medical and security sources said.

A security official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the 29-year-old Sudanese Ahmed Khater Mohamed was shot in his thigh by an Egyptian patrol after he ignored orders to stop.

“He was transferred to El-Arish hospital where he was operated. His condition is stable now,” he added.

In another separate incident Egyptian police arrested a Sudanese woman and her 9-year-old child as she was trying to cross the border in El-Kuntilla area in Mid-Sinai.

Egyptian police have killed 12 migrants this year who were trying to get into the Jewish state. Scores of others, mostly from Africa, have been detained.

London-based rights group Amnesty International says thousands of migrants try to cross into Israel from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula each year, with numbers rising since 2007.

The migrants, including many from Sudan, are seeking work or asylum away from conflict at home and harsh living conditions in Egypt, where activists say African migrants face economic marginalisation and racism.

(Reuters)