EL-ARISH: Egyptian police shot and killed an African migrant as he tried to cross the border illegally into neighboring Israel early on Friday, a security source said.
The man, whose identity was not immediately known, was killed instantly when he was shot in the neck.
Police fired after the man and a second migrant refused an order to stop, the source added.
A Chadian who was accompanying him was injured by barbed wire and hospitalized in the town of Rafah, on the border with the Gaza Strip.
The man’s death brings to 18 the number of African migrants killed so far this year when attempting the crossing in search of a better life and job prospects in Israel.
Cairo has rejected constant criticism from human rights groups of its policy of using potentially lethal force against the migrants along the 250-kilometer (155-mile) border.
According to security services in Egypt, which has a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, 19 migrants were killed last year. Most of them hailed from Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia.
