RABAT: A Moroccan court imposed 8-month prison sentences Thursday on 14 migrants for attempting, along with hundreds of others, to scale a border fence separating the north African country from the autonomous Spanish enclave of Melilla in June.
Nador’s Court of First Instance also ordered the defendants to pay 2,000-dirham ($194) fines each over the events of June 24.
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights, known as AMDH, said at least 27 migrants trying to enter Spain died that day, and numerous others — both migrants and police — were hurt.
The AMDH condemned the decision which is described as “very harsh against people who only seek refuge.”
The same court sentenced 33 migrants to 11 months in prison last month after they tried to climb the border wall between Morocco and Melilla, also on June 24.
The trial of 28 additional immigrants from Sudan, Chad, Yemen, and South Sudan who were detained after the scaling attempt was postponed by the Nador Court of Appeal to August 17, due to the absence of witnesses.
Moroccan court jails 14 migrants for 8 months over crossing
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Moroccan court jails 14 migrants for 8 months over crossing
- AMDH condemned the decision as “very harsh against people who only seek refuge.”
RSF drone strike causes blackout in Sudan’s El-Obeid
- North Kordofan state capital El-Obeid lies on a key crossroads that connects RSF-controlled Darfur in the west with the army-controlled east, including the capital Khartoum
KHARTOUM: A paramilitary drone strike on a power plant Tuesday caused a blackout in Sudan’s key Kordofan city of El-Obeid, a local official and an eyewitness told AFP.
“A drone belonging to the Rapid Support Forces bombed the city’s power station early this morning, causing a fire,” an official with the state electricity company said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. El-Obeid is the largest city in Sudan’s Kordofan region, currently the fiercest battlefield in the war raging between the RSF and the regular army since April 2023.
HIGHLIGHT
For a year, since the army broke a long-running RSF siege, the paramilitary has been trying to encircle the city, including by launching drone strikes and attacking nearby towns.
“I heard an explosion at 2:00 a.m. (0000 GMT) then saw flames coming from the direction of the station,” city resident Awad Ali told AFP. “It’s now past 9:00 a.m. and power isn’t back.”
North Kordofan state capital El-Obeid lies on a key crossroads that connects RSF-controlled Darfur in the west with the army-controlled east, including the capital Khartoum.
For a year, since the army broke a long-running RSF siege, the paramilitary has been trying to encircle the city, including by launching drone strikes and attacking nearby towns.
Recent weeks have seen the army mount a counteroffensive, managing to break the siege on Kordofan’s two other major cities: Dilling and Kadugli, where hundreds of thousands faced mass starvation. Since it began, the war has killed tens of thousands and left around 11 million people displaced, creating the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
It has also effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the north, center and east while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.
