Egypt kills Sudanese man trying to cross into Israel

Guards also arrest 4 Chinese, 2 Eritreans, 2 Nepalese who paid human traffickers to help them cross border.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Sudanese atBorder 248.88 (photo credit: Channel 10 [file])
Sudanese atBorder 248.88
(photo credit: Channel 10 [file])
Egyptian border guards shot and killed a Sudanese man Tuesday and arrested eight other foreigners trying to cross illegally into Israel, security and hospital officials said. The detainees included four Chinese women, two Eritrean women and a man and woman from Nepal, an Egyptian security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media. The group had paid hundreds of dollars to human traffickers to help them cross Egypt's border into Israel, the official said. They were caught about 18 kilometers south of Rafah, the main crossing point on the Egypt-Gaza border, he said. Egyptian guards, firing shots into the air, chased the migrants along the border before they surrendered, the official said. The Sudanese man, Armenary Sinat, broke away from the pack and ran toward the border's barbed wire fence, when the Egyptian guards opened fire and killed him, the security official said. Sinat, 50, died from bullet wounds to the neck and right shoulder, said Imad Kharboush, head of the emergency unit at el-Arish hospital, where the victim's body was transferred. Kharboush said he received an order from a military prosecutor to carry out an autopsy. On Saturday, Egyptian border guards shot and killed an Eritrean woman and arrested her two young daughters after they also tried to cross illegally into Israel, security and medical officials said then. Israel estimates that 2,800 people, mostly from Africa, have entered the country illegally through its border with Egypt in recent years searching for jobs. The number shot up last summer, apparently as word spread of job opportunities in Israel and a more lenient policy toward refugees. As many as 50 people arrived each day in June, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.