12 Sudanese migrants killed in a car crash in the Libya desert
moatinoon & Agencies
The Libyan authorities announced that 12 Sudanese refugees were killed and two others injured on Friday in a car accident in the Libyan desert, marking yet another tragedy for Sudanese fleeing the civil war in their homeland.
According to a statement from the Emergency and Ambulance Service in Kufra, Libya, the accident occurred in the early hours of Friday when a vehicle carrying the migrants collided with a large truck, approximately 90 kilometers north of the city.
The statement read:
"A collision occurred in the early hours of this morning between a Skia-type car and a large truck on the main road 90 km north of Kufra. The accident resulted in the death of 12 individuals, all of them Sudanese nationals, including women and children. Two others were injured, and all were transported to Al-Shahid Atiya Al-Kasih Hospital."
The head of the agency, Ibrahim Belhassen, told the Associated Press that among the deceased were three women and two children. Authorities later confirmed the identities of the victims and the injured.
The deceased who have been identified are:
Wifaq Awad Khairallah (born 1992)
Salahuddin Abdo Hussein (born 1985)
Qassim Al-Sayed Mohamed Qassim Al-Sayed (born 1975)
Majdoline Omar Mohamed (born 1984)
Moayed Qassim Al-Sayed Mohamed Qassim Al-Sayed (born 2012)
Arki Al-Rasheed Abdelrahman (born 2007)
Abdelsalam Wasli Gowei
Qais Salahuddin Abdo Hussein
Abdo Salahuddin Abdo Hussein
Suheila Qassim Al-Sayed Mohamed Qassim Al-Sayed
Aseel Qassim Al-Sayed Mohamed Qassim Al-Sayed
Halima Abdallah Ibrahim
A 65-year-old man named Youssef Gabara and his 10-year-old son, Al-Jaali, were also injured in the accident.
This incident is the latest in a series of deadly accidents involving Sudanese migrants in the Libyan desert.
Earlier this month, seven Sudanese migrants were found dead after their vehicle broke down in the desert along a smuggling route between Chad and Libya. The breakdown left 34 passengers stranded for several days without food or water.
The Emergency and Ambulance Service had previously announced, on May 22, the deaths of 11 Sudanese refugees who had been stranded for 11 days without water or food due to a vehicle breakdown in the Kufra desert—bringing the death toll for Sudanese migrants in Libya to 30 in May alone.
Libya has descended into chaos since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
The country has become a major transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, seeking a better life in Europe. Libya shares borders with six countries and has a long coastline along the Mediterranean Sea.
Human traffickers have exploited more than a decade of instability, smuggling migrants across Libya’s borders with Chad, Niger, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia.
Thousands of Sudanese have fled to Libya since April 2023, when escalating tensions between the Sudanese army and a powerful paramilitary group erupted into street fighting across the country.
