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| Photo Credit: AP. |
No fewer than 18 African migrants have died in what authorities call stampede as they tried to enter Melilla, a Spanish territory on Friday.
The migrants
were surging to cross Morocco’s border fence with the Spanish North African
enclave of Melilla when the incidence took place leaving scores of migrants and
police personnel injured in the chaos.
About 133
migrants breached the border between the Moroccan city of Nador and Melilla on
Friday, the first mass crossing since Spain resolved diplomatic relations with
Morocco last month, The Associated Press reports.
A
spokesperson for the Spanish government’s office in Melilla said about 2,000
people attempted to cross but many of them were stopped by Spanish Civil Guard
police and Moroccan forces on either side of the border fence, according to The
Associated Press.
The Associated
Press reported that Morocco’s interior Ministry said in a statement that the
casualties occurred when people tried to climb the iron fence, adding that five
migrants were killed and 76 injured along with 140 Moroccan security officers
in the encounter.
The Moroccan
official news agency MAP said thirteen of the injured migrants later died in
the hospital, raising the death toll to 18, citing local officials, according
to The Associated Press. The Moroccan Human Rights Associated said about 27
persons died in the encounter. The figures could not be immediately confirmed.
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| Photo Credit: AP. |
About 49
Civil Guards sustained minor injuries during the encounter which also left four
police vehicles damaged. A number of migrants crossed the border and arrived at
a local migrant center where authorities are evaluating their cases.
African
migrants fleeing poverty, violence and political instability in their countries
often take the hard but dangerous path to reach Melilla and other Spanish
territory on the North African coast as they strive to reach the continent of
Europe.
Moroccan
forces are deployed on the border to help prevent them from entering Spanish
territories. In March more than 3500 people tried to scale the six meter
(20-foot) barrier that surrounds Melilla but 1,000 people made it across,
according to Spanish authorities, The Associated Press reports.
Last year
Morocco allowed thousands of migrants to cross into Spain in retaliation for
Spain’s decision to allow the leader of Western Sahara’s pro-independence
movement to be treated for COVID-19 at a Spanish hospital, according to The
Associated Press. The move worsened diplomatic relations between both sides. The
Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1976. The region
is seeking independence from Morocco.