Violent attempt to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla leaves 18 migrants dead

Eighteen migrants died this Friday in a particularly violent assault by some 2,000 sub-Saharans who tried to cross from Morocco to the city Spanish of Melilla, an episode that left a balance of 322 wounded, of which 189 are Moroccan and Spanish agents and another 133 emigrants.

The attempt to jump the fence that separates the North African country from the Spanish city in North Africa began after six in the morning, when the migrants they began to approach the border and were stopped by a large device set up by Morocco.

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Despite the efforts of the Moroccan agents, two hours later a group of some 500 Sub-Saharans managed to reach the fence and broke down an access door with shears, after which they began to enter Melilla. According to the City Government Delegation, 133 of them succeeded.

THE MOST VIOLENT ATTEMPT IN YEARS

The migrants They assaulted the fence with a violence that had not been seen in years, Moroccan security sources assured Efe, and they were armed with handmade knives, sticks, hammers and stones. Also with hooks to climb the fence.

In their advance, they even threw a type of acid towards the Moroccan agents, but the substance did not reach any of them, indicated the same sources, who offered a balance of around 1,000 migrants detainees in Morocco, many of them Sudanese nationals.

A migrant, left, is detained by a police officer on Spanish soil after crossing the fences separating the Spanish exclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla, Spain. (AP/Javier Bernardo/)

The Moroccan agents used tear gas to disperse them and as a result of the clashes at least 18 sub-Saharan people died.

In a first balance, sources from the local authorities in the province of Nador, bordering Melilla, reported the death of five people dragged by the crowd in an avalanche or falling to the ground from a wall.

The same sources updated the balance late at night to 18 migrants dead, adding to the first five another 13 who were among the wounded. And they added that there is no deceased among the security forces of Morocco.

In total, Moroccan local authorities accounted for 76 migrants wounded and another 140 Moroccan agents treated for injuries (5 seriously).

On the Spanish side, the balance of those affected was less serious and the assault resulted in 106 people injured, specifically 49 Civil Guard agents and 57 immigrants, of whom three had to be taken to hospital.

AN EXPECTED ASSAULT

????Maximum aggressiveness in a new massive leap of sub-Saharans on the Melilla border with the result of more than fifty civil guards injured

They have used against radial agents, steel bars and cutting tools@interiorgob we need solutions pic.twitter.com/QnatmuBG3P

– AUGC Civil Guard (@AUGC_Comunica) June 24, 2022

Hundreds of sub-Saharans had been congregating for days in areas of Morocco near Melilla and preparing a massive assault on the fence, many of them of Sudanese nationality, who had, according to Moroccan police sources, the collaboration of citizens of the Maghreb country due to their linguistic proximity and religious (both in Sudan and in Morocco Arabic is spoken and Islam is professed).

Specifically, they were gathering in hard-to-reach mountains located in the Bini Buiafrur region, about 20 kilometers west of Melilla.

Given these events, the Moroccan authorities carried out two operations this Thursday and last Saturday to try to frustrate their plans, which also turned into violence and ended with around 200 wounded agents, one of them seriously, according to security sources.

????| ???? Very harsh images of the violent massive jump to the border fence of #Melillawhere several agents of the #Civil Guard.

Situation that will repeat because the executive continues without taking measures to protect our borders.#EquiparacionYa29Y30 pic.twitter.com/JvXD2IwwF1

– National Jucil (@jucilnacional) June 24, 2022

SPAIN PRAISES MOROCCO

The assault occurred at a time of diplomatic harmony between Spain and Morocco. Both countries resumed their relations in March after a year of crisis that had its peak in May 2021, when thousands of migrants They entered the Spanish city of Ceuta, near Melilla, in the face of the passivity of the Moroccan authorities.

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, today praised the Moroccan collaboration to try to stop the “violent and organized” assault and expressed solidarity with the wounded agents.

Sánchez highlighted the “extraordinary cooperation” with Morocco in the face of this assault, which demonstrates, he said, the need to maintain the best of relations with the neighboring country.

Migrants scale the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla, Spain. (AP/Javier Bernardo/)

“The Moroccan Gendarmerie has worked hard to try to prevent this violent assault, well organized, well perpetrated and well resolved by the two security forces,” he added from Brussels.

The assault occurs less than ten days after the meeting in Madrid between the interior ministers of Spain, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and Morocco, Abdelouafi Laftit, in which they highlighted the “exemplary” cooperation between the two countries in matters of security, especially in the area of ​​migration.

The crisis between Rabat and Madrid erupted in April 2021, when the Spanish authorities allowed the Saharawi independence leader Brahim Gali to receive hospital care in Spain.

#Live | Sánchez appreciates the “extraordinary cooperation with Morocco” and says that the jump to the Melilla fence demonstrates “the need to have the best of relations and close collaboration in the fight against illegal immigration” pic.twitter.com/lu53wptrHz

— Europe Press (@europapress) June 24, 2022

The situation worsened on May 17 and 18 of that year with the irregular entry from Morocco of more than 10,000 people in Ceuta and the call for consultations by the Moroccan ambassador in Madrid.

As of last March, it was redirected after Sánchez supported the Moroccan proposal for autonomy for Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony now administered in part by Morocco and whose total independence the Polisario Front demands.

Source: Elcomercio