“Thirteen irregular migrants injured during the assault on the city of Melilla died in the evening from their serious injuries,” a source from the authorities of the province of Nador told AFP on Friday June 24.
Moroccans in Spanish territory on the border of Morocco and Spain, in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Monday May 17, 2021.
A first report by these same authorities reported five dead and 76 injured, including 13 seriously, among the migrants, and 140 members of the police injured, including 5 seriously.
The victims were killed “in jostling and falling from the iron fence” which separates the Spanish enclave from Moroccan territory, during “an assault marked by the use of very violent methods on the part of migrants” , said the same source.
Justice and sentencing
In addition, Moroccan justice has decided to prosecute 65 migrants, the majority of them Sudanese, for having participated in the attempt to cross the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco last week.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, the Chadian Moussa Faki Mahamat, denounced “the violent and degrading treatment of African migrants”calling for an investigation into this tragedy which will be examined on Wednesday by the UN Security Council.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, head of the AU Commission
In a tweet, the Kenyan ambassador to the UN Martin Kimani announced that at the initiative of his country, supported by Gabon and Ghana – the two other African countries currently non-permanent members of the Security Council -, he was going to hold a meeting behind closed doors on the violent repression of migrants.
“Migrants are migrants: whether they come from Africa or Europe, they do not deserve to be so brutalized”, underlined Martin Kimani. Questioned during his daily press briefing on the tragedy that occurred in Melilla, the United Nations spokesman Stéphane Dujarric declared that the UN “deplored this tragic event and the loss of life” which resulted.
Solutions
How can we prevent this umpteenth tragedy of irregular migration at the gates of the European Union from happening again?
African migrants wait in a boat for help from the Spanish NGO Open Arms
Eric Topona tries to answer this problem with his guests under the Palabre Tree:
–Mariam Tendou KamaraExecutive Director Baantou, Co-Founder WAFRICA-Women of Africa and UN Expert (Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment) Guinea/Senegal.
– Clement Klutseelected CDU member of the Hamburg regional parliament and independent consultant.
– Bertrand SikadiCameroonian migrant established in France and author of the book entitled “Folie et calvaire des migrants”.
– Mahamadou CissePresident of the National Council of Malian Youth of France, and Coordinator of a program on the mobilization of the skills of the diaspora for employment in Mali
Click on the image in the center to listen to the full debate