10 Sudanese migrants died near Libyan border, says SAF

May 3, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has announced that 10 illegal migrants died in the desert near the Sudanese-Libyan borders.

Last week, a joint Sudanese-Libyan force rescued 319 migrants after they became stranded in the desert on the border between the two countries, noting their miserable condition.

A Sudanese foreign ministry official told the state news agency SUNA at the time that human traffickers had abandoned the illrgal migrants in the desert.

SAF’s spokesperson, Colonel Al-Sawarmi Khaled Saad, said in a press release on Saturday, that the remaining 309 of the rescued migrants arrived on Saturday afternoon in the North State capital, Dongola.

Eritrean and Ethiopian migrants were among those rescued, he added.

He pointed that the joint Libyan-Sudanese force caught 30 more illegal migrants in the desert, saying they will also be transferred to Dongla.

Sudan and Libya have established in November 2013 a joint force to control the borders between the two countries.

The Sudanese government has continued to warn Sudanese citizens wishing to travel to Libya against illegal immigration and human traffickers, underscoring the enormous risks faced by illegal immigrants, including getting lost in the desert which has resulted in many dying of thirst.

Last June, Libyan guards killed a dozen Sudanese migrants who had illegally crossed the border.

The Egyptian authorities at the Salloum land port on the Mediterranean Sea on Friday announced the arrest of 31 Egyptians and 3 Sudanese nationals while they were trying to sneak into the Libyan territory through the desert routes.

The majority of those illegal migrants use Libya as a transit point to Europe.

(ST)