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Appendix: Fatalities

As of October 15, 2008, there are 33 reported incidents of Egyptian border police killing migrants since the first recorded fatality on July 22, 2007. Victims range in age from a seven-year-old girl to a man in his fifties. Of the 33 fatalities, 32 were Africans (border police killed a Turkish man in 2007). Egyptian border police have also reportedly killed two smugglers during this period. Smugglers have reportedly killed three policemen.

2008 (23 fatalities):

  • October 15: Egyptian border police kill an Eritrean migrant.283

  • September 9: Egyptian border police kill two Sudanese migrants south of Rafah.284

  • August 19: A 27-year-old Sudanese man is shot while trying to cross border 8 kilometers south of Rafah; dies of gunshot wounds to stomach.285

  • August 6: Haroun Mohamed Yehya Haroun, a 24-year-old Sudanese man, dies of gunshot wounds to the head.286

  • August 1: An unidentified African man dies of gunshot wounds on the way to hospital.287

  • July 20: Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Karim Ahmed Adam, a 32-year-old Sudanese man, is shot in the chest and killed at a border point in central Sinai.288

  • June 28: Police kill a seven-year-old Sudanese girl and an unidentified man in his thirties south of Rafah.289

  • June 19: An unidentified African man, apparently in his thirties, is shot dead.290

  • June 10: 29-year-old Mohammed Tahir Mersal, from Sudan, is killed.291

  • May 6: An 25-year-old Nigerian man is killed.292

  • April 17: An unidentified Eritrean migrant is killed.293

  • March 27: Two men in their thirties from Cote D’Ivoire are shot dead.294

  • March 18: A 25-year-old Eritrean woman, named Karina, dies of three bullet wounds.295

  • March 10: Egyptian police kill 23-year-old Adam Mohammed Othman, from Sudan.296

  • February 25: An unidentified Eritrean woman, in her thirties, is killed.297

  • February 19: A Sudanese man, Armenary Sinat, age around 50, is shot dead about 18 kilometers south of Rafah. 298

  • February 16: An Eritrean woman, Mervat Mer Hatover, 37, is shot and killed trying to cross the border in El Kuntilla region in eastern Sinai. Hatover was traveling with two daughters, ages 8 and 10.299

  • January 30: A 22-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman from Cote D’Ivoire are shot dead.300

  • January 19: Cherif Lansana, a 22-year-old man from Cote D’Ivoire, is shot dead on barbed wire between Israel and Egypt.301

    • 2007 (10 fatalities):

    • November 10: Henna Mohammed Mohammed, a 24-year-old Eritrean man, is killed south of Rafah.302
    • October 19: A 35-year-old Turkish man dies in hospital after border police shot him in the head.303
    • October 13: An Unidentified African man crosses into Israel before dying of gunshot wound to the head.304
    • September 17: An Eritrean man is shot dead trying to cross at the central section of the Sinai border.305
    • August 8: An unidentified migrant is killed by Egyptian border police, according to Israeli officials.306
    • August 1: Two Sudanese men are shot, one instantly killed; Egyptian forces then caught and beat to death the wounded man as well as two others.
    • July 22: Egyptian police killed Haja Abbas Haroun, a 28-year-old from Darfur, who was trying to enter Israel from the town of Al-Aouja.307

    283 “Egypt police kill African migrant on Israel border,” Agence France-Presse, October 15, 2008.

    284 “Egyptian police kill two Africans at Israel border,” Reuters, September 9, 2008.

    285 “Egypt police kill Sudanese migrant at Israel border,” Reuters, August 19, 2008; “Official: Sudanese killed near Egypt-Israel border,” Associated Press, August 19, 2008.

    286 “Egypt police kill Sudanese migrant at Israel border,” Reuters, August 6, 2008.

    287 “Egypt police kill African migrant at Israel border,” Reuters, August 1, 2008.

    288 “Egypt police kill Sudanese migrant at Israel border,” Reuters, July 20, 2008.

    289 “Egypt police kill African man, 7-year-old at border,” Reuters, June 28, 2008; “Egypt police kill girl, 7, on Israel border,” Agence France-Presse, June 28, 2008.

    290 “Egypt police shoot dead African migrant trying to cross into Israel,” Reuters, June 19, 2008.

    291 “Egyptian police kill Sudanese migrant trying to infiltrate Israel,” Associated Press, June 10, 2008.

    292 Ashraf Sweilam, “Egyptian border guards kill 1 Nigerian, injure 4 Sudanese trying to sneak into Israel,” Associated Press, May 6, 2008. Egyptian guards also shot three Sudanese men and one woman.

    293 “Egypt police kill Eritrean migrant at Israel border,” Reuters, April 17, 2008.

    294 “Migrants killed on Egypt’s border,” BBC News, March 27, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7317269.stm (accessed October 15, 2008).

    295 “Egyptian police kill Eritrean migrant,” Reuters, March 18, 2008.

    296 “Egypt police kill Sudanese man trying to cross into Israel,” Agence France-Presse, March 10, 2008; “Egyptian troops kill Sudanese man trying to cross into Israel,” Associated Press, March 10, 2008.

    297 “Egyptian cops ‘kill’ Eritrean,” Agence France-Presse, February 25, 2008.

    298 Ashraf Sweilam, “Egyptian guards kill Sudanese man trying to cross illegally into Israel,” Associated Press, February 19, 2008. A Reuters report identified the victim as Ermeniry Khasheef. “Egypt police kill Sudanese migrant on Israel border,” Reuters, February 19, 2008.

    299 Ashraf Sweilam, “Egyptian guards kill Eritrean migrant,” Associated Press, February 16, 2008. Reuters identified the woman as Murfit Meery, age 37. “Egypt police kill Eritrea migrant on Israel border,” Reuters, February 16, 2008.

    300 “Egyptian police kill two migrants on Israel border,” Reuters, January 30, 2008.

    301 “Egypt police kill African migrant on border,” Reuters, January 19, 2008.

    302 “Egypt police shoot Eritrean at Israel border,” Reuters, November 10, 2007; see also Human Rights Watch, “Letter to Egypt’s Minister of Interior General Habib al-`Adli,” November 14, 2007, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/11/14/egypt17341.htm.

    303 “Turkish migrant shot by Egypt dies of wounds,” Reuters, October 19, 2007.

    304 Yonat Atlas, “Sudanese refugee shot to death at border,” Ynet, October 13, 2007, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3459441,00.html (accessed October 15, 2008).

    305 “Eritrean migrant shot dead on Egypt-Israel border,” Reuters, September 17, 2007.

    306 Ellen Knickmeyer, “Flight From Darfur Ends Violently in Egypt,” Washington Post, August 19, 2007: “The beaten and bound body of another Sudanese man was found near the border on Aug. 8. Egyptian officials said the man likely was killed in a money dispute with Bedouin guides. Israeli media quoted officials there as saying Israel has surveillance video proving the man was shot by Egyptian security forces.” For the Egyptian police version of events, see “Sudanese man found dead in Sinai, probable migrant,” Reuters, August 19, 2008.

    307 Knickmeyer, “Flight From Darfur Ends Violently in Egypt,” Washington Post, August 19, 2007.


    November 2008

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