Sudanese police free Eritreans from human trafficking gang
November 9, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese police have freed six Eritrean nationals who were abducted by a human trafficking gang in the state of Kassala in eastern Sudan following fierce armed confrontation. The hostages were
November 9, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese police have freed six Eritrean nationals who were abducted by a human trafficking gang in the state of Kassala in eastern Sudan following fierce armed confrontation.
The hostages were found chained to each other in east Atbara River area waiting for payment of ransoms to secure their release.
Kassala police chief, Omer al-Mukhtar, said the kidnappers demanded ransom to free the abductees, saying that police raided the area where the hostages were kept and freed them based on information made available to it.
He added the victims were found chained to each other and suffering from hunger and thirst, pointing the perpetrators fled during the confrontations to free the abductees.
The director of the anti-smuggling department at the eastern sector, Murwan al-Hussein, told the official news agency SUNA that the police received information about existence of smuggled goods and suspicious vehicles in the area.
He said that a police force searched the area and exchanged fire with the gang members, pointing the abductors fled the area leaving behind 6 hostages and a truck loaded with foodstuff besides 6 boxes of cigarettes and a G4 rifle.
Al-Hussein called upon all citizens to cooperate with the police and report on the negative phenomena and unusual and suspicious movements, urging refuges not to fall prey to the human-trafficking gangs in their quest to migrate to Europe.
In a report issued last February, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Sudanese and Egyptian security officials of involvement in human trafficking, saying that Egypt and Sudan are giving allegedly corrupt security officials a free pass to work with traffickers.
“Victims said that Sudanese and Egyptian security officers facilitated trafficker abuses rather than arresting them and rescuing their victims.” the report said.
Last Month, Khartoum hosted a conference on human trafficking in the Horn of Africa, organised by the African Union (AU), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Sudanese government. Fifteen countries and European Union representatives attended the meeting, during which a joint strategy and action plan to combat human trafficking was adopted.
Last January, the Sudanese parliament approved an anti-human trafficking law which punishes those involved with human trafficking with up to 20 years imprisonment.
Sudan’s commissioner of refugees affairs, Hamad al-Gizouli, had previously said that 102 human trafficking incident has been registered in Sudan during 2013.
Eastern Sudan in particular is believed to be serving as a passage to migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia who seek to reach Europe with the help of human smugglers.
(ST)
Moshe November 10, 2014
Poor Eritreans, they are still being used as the savage Rashayda Arabs’ doormat – Teyqi?
We used to insult our own African brothers and sisters as “Donkey — Adgi” ! But we have ended up as slaves of the lowest Arab Rashaydas and the dirtiest Arab Bedouins.
How did we become the lowest humans in Africa?
Please do not delete honest and critical comments. We need to respond and star them. Let the readers be the judges.
ahmed saleh November 11, 2014
What do you expect if a shepherd abandoned his herd ?
What slaves you expect if parents abandon their children?
What slaves expect if a government abandoned it’s citizens?
The answer is they expose into unexpected consequences .
Do not blame no one but only to the shepherd , the parents
and the government who left abandoned them in first place.
What difference it makes than to shoot them to kill crossing
the border or arresting their parents to pay 50,000 balds and
to give authority for Rashaida make profitable enterprise .
Sadly to say the evilish players and the victims happened to
be from same region speaking in majority terms . For how
long you would hide from reality which speaks itself to
defend those evils who are killing your siblings . And do
not forget Rashaida do not mess with deki Barka and if
you ask me why ? Figure out yourself who was in charge
at that region like General manjus-negis.
ሓውኻ ኣበይ ኣሎ? November 11, 2014
Moshe, shalom
The root cause of our problem as Eritreans is ethno-religious polarization which was conducted by our British and Feudal Ethiopian occupiers and which is still getting people like you who beat the old drum.
Daniel November 10, 2014
Nwirdet teebit tikdima dyu zbehal. Nihna:men kemana: nay Africa awra: agame….kulu temelisu kihadnena reena.
Wadbahar November 10, 2014
“…the abductors fled the area leaving behind 6 hostages…” (The Press report)
This news is partially good but sadly enough, we have never heard or read that abductors have been captured on the Sudanese soil, a matter which casts serious doubts on the honesty of the Sudanese police. This is always the case, and I would wonder if this time it was different.
From the legal point of view, these folks are asylum seekers or refugees according to Article 1 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees because they have fled their country “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” The Sudan, as one of the signatories of this convention, is a partner of the UNHCR in giving protection to all asylum seekers inside its borders, whether registered or not. Therefore, reporting that the abductors have fled is a great shame for the Sudanese Government that should capture the abductors and bring them to justice. Where did they go? Did they disappear into the thin air? They are within the territories administered under the Sudanese flag. Isn’t this a declaration by the police chief that the Sudan is “… no man’s land”. As long as the government of the Sudan does not control what is going on its territories, it is not honouring its international obligations as a UN member at all, and it should be held responsible. Sadly enough, this is happening every now and then and the language of the reporting is always the same.
This bizarre story leads one to conclude that there is no doubt the Sudanese police are a part of the problem and that this should be recognized as a fact and dealt with seriously by the UN. Could we see the Sudan other than a failed state in this context? How come its representatives sit with other UN members on meetings and how is the country considered a diplomatic partner by other states? It is amazing and amusing, the least to say by a frustrated person.
FAILED PEOPLE November 11, 2014
Wadbahar,
You are smart and level headed ,instead of putting emotional crap ,you read between the lines .What Sudan is doing is only a show ,the same with Eritrean government deeply concerned about human traffickers.
It is just a show to throiw off the investigators from their lead.Not only are the Sudanese Army but the Sudanese & Eritrean governments are working together.
Genet-orginal November 12, 2014
Wadbahar
Good point. “.. the abductors fled the area leaving behind 6 hostages…” What a joke. Where did thay go? You are hosting conference to work against human trafficking, yet you can’t even capture local human traffickers under your nose. I am glad they were able to save six people. But it is not enough, if you let the human traffickers go free. I hope the next news from Sudane will be “We captured human traffickers and their nationality…”
Wadbahar November 12, 2014
Your hope will never happen, Sister Genent, until the man walking with a cane (like a 7th century shepherd) is forced out of power, a democratic Sudan emerges from the ashes of the one-party dominated archaic regime, and the Sudan catches up with the civilized world. Only then and then (I emphasize) the Sudan will be a state deserving its name.
Tsedenia.M November 11, 2014
As the urge to leave Eritrea intensifies so was the business of human trafficking assuming dangerous dimension. Poor Eritreans in the refugee camps in the Sudan are as unsafe as they have been in Eritrea. The reason is that some of the Sudanese security forces instead of protecting the unprotected they in turn are cooperating with human smugglers to deliver innocent refugees for sale. As for Sudan and Libya let alone investigate the crimes occurred in their territories they in turn are in complicit with the regime in Eritrea to periodically deport army deserters and persons deem dangerous back in Eritrea. God bless Eritrea.
wedi asfaha November 13, 2014
i hate to give a none sense comment but the only person to blame is wedi medhin berad Issayas Afeworki and followers
hureya November 14, 2014
we can’t blame the rashayida cuz they are doing their bad business/interest/obviously if we understand the current situation,the politics the business ,the religious activists and most of us are running for our individual or group ,nation interest.if we have to blame we have to blame the root cause &the individuals who participating on the bad business unless insulting an ethnic group as whole is wrong.you can’t get answer by looking mirror whether you are dirty or not but i am sure you can get the answer when u think of your mind .probably at that time you may be the dirty one than the rashada people.
hureya November 14, 2014
gela gelina belabelo ena nezareb ,sela baelina zeynefaanas sela sudan mizerab hateyat keykewen? wey kaa hajew jew nay asha zereba
wedibahar, how could you have heart to speak about Sudan first we have lets finish our assignment in our home.then we gonna time to speak about our neighbors
Wadbahar November 15, 2014
Hureya:
If the regime in the Sudan is gone, the Eritrean regime can’t survive long. 100% isolation of the regime means suffocation, which in the final analysis means collapse. So, it is difficult to separate the Eritrean politics from that of the Sudan, unless you are totally ignorant about the ABC of the regional politics and how each one could have a bearing on the other. Please, learn the basics before you comment.