Officials at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on January 1 reported that a group of 1,100 people from sub-Saharan Africa tried to pass a high double border fence at 4am in an “extremely violent and organised” assault.
According to an official statement, none managed to get through, except for two who were badly injured and taken to hospital in Ceuta.
They tried “to force open some of the doors in the external fence, using iron bars, wire cutters and large stones with which they assaulted Moroccan forces and [Spanish] Guardia Civil [police] agents,” said the official statement.
As reported by the Agence France-Presse (AFP), five Spanish policemen and 50 members of the Moroccan forces were injured, including one who lost an eye, it said.
A Moroccan interior ministry statement said that of those members of the security forces who were hurt, 10 were in a serious condition.
According to local authorities, of the 1,100 migrants who stormed the border, just over 100 managed to climb up the external fence and stayed on top for hours.
Footage shot by the local Faro TV shows one man perched at the top of the six-metre high fence, sitting uncomfortably near rolls of barbed wire, his head hanging down onto his chest, reported
AFP.
Ceuta and Melilla, another Spanish territory in North Africa, have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa.
NEOnline | TB
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