Last update - 00:00 05/08/2007
Report: Egypt detains Sudanese woman who tried to enter Israel
By The Associated Press
Egyptian police detained a Sudanese woman as she tried to cross the border into Israel with her 2-year-old daughter on Sunday, Egypt's official news agency reported.
Police identified the woman as Merry Demis Locko, 27, a Sudanese refugee from the war-torn Darfur area, the Middle East News Agency said.
The arrest comes three days after Channel 10 television reported that Egyptian soldiers murdered three Sudanese refugees, beating two to death in front of horrified Israel Defense Forces soldiers, screening what it said was army surveillance video and interviews with the soldiers.
Egyptian police told The Associated Press that authorities arrested two Sudanese refugees Thursday, seriously injuring one when he scuffled with police.
Without specifically mentioning the incident, a spokesman for Egypt's Foreign Ministry on Saturday accused Israel of trying to drive a wedge in Egypt's relations with Sudan. The spokesman did not confirm or deny the Israeli media report.
But he said the Egyptian government was implementing laws to try to stem an increasing influx of Sudanese refugees trying to cross into Israel.
Hundreds of Sudanese refugees, many from the war-wracked Darfur region, have crossed the desert border from Egypt into Israel in recent months.
Last month, Egyptian border guards shot and killed a Sudanese woman and wounded four others. She was the first Sudanese refugee to be killed.
Israel estimates that 2,800 people have entered the country illegally through its Sinai Peninsula border in recent years, nearly all from Africa. The number shot up in the past two months, apparently as word spread of job opportunities in Israel. As many as 50 people arrived each day in June, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Many Sudanese find life difficult in Egypt, a country that struggles to provide jobs and social services for a growing refugee population. Egyptian riot police violently cleared a refugee encampment in central Cairo in 2005, killing nearly 30 people.