AL-ARISH: Egyptian police shot dead an Eritrean migrant on Tuesday as she tried to enter Israel illegally, a security official said.
The 38-year-old woman died when she was shot in the stomach and the leg, close to the Egypt-Israeli border in central Sinai, the official said.
She was accompanied by two other women and a child, all Eritrean, who were arrested.
Separately, Egyptian police arrested five African migrants, including two Sudanese, south of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip where they were also trying to enter Israel.
The Eritrean woman’s death brings to 19 the number of African migrants killed so far this year when attempting the crossing in search of a better life and job prospects.
Cairo has rejected constant criticism from human rights groups of its policy of using potentially lethal force against the migrants along the 250-km border.
According to security services in Egypt, which has a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, 19 migrants were killed last year, most of them hailing from Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia.
