Refugees from Libya denied assistance at Egyptian border

As fighting continues between rebel and government forces in Libya, a group of at least 200 refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia who have fled to Egypt are being denied humanitarian assistance by the Egyptian authorities.

“On the first night we heard that they were given no food at all,” says Dr Khataza Gondwe, Team Leader for Africa and the Middle East at Christian Solidarity Worldwide. “For at least two nights they were sleeping on the open ground -- and it’s very cold at the moment at night.”

The group includes over 20 children aged between 6 months and ten years.

Non-Arab refugees in Libya are regularly subject to racism, abuse and arbitrary imprisonment; however, with reports of African mercenaries fighting on the side of the government, there has been a sharp rise in harassment and violent attacks.

“Innocent Africans who have been in Libya either as migrant workers or who have fled there as refugees trying to get elsewhere have been attacked and have been in hiding,” Dr Gondwe told Vatican Radio.

Listen to Dr Khataza Gondwe’s full interview with Kelsea Brennan-Wessels: