Sudanese Refugee Day (29th Dec 2005)

In November 2005, hundreds of Sudanese refugees united to stage a peaceful sit-in protest. They constructed makeshift camps for themselves in Mustafa Mahmoud Square outside the UNHCR office in Mohandisin, Cairo. This wasn’t the first protest organized by the Sudanese. The year before, they staged a protest surrounding the issue of obtaining “yellow cards” from the government which had become a months long process. This protest, however, was centered around their living conditions within Egypt.


After months of protest, the UNHCR remained steadfast in their refusal to grant Sudanese refugee status. Conditions within the park were quickly becoming dire due to overcrowding and lack of any sanitation. Finally, UNHCR officials handed the matter over to the notoriously aggressive Egyptian police.
After months of protest, the UNHCR remained steadfast in their refusal to grant Sudanese refugee status. Conditions within the park were quickly becoming dire due to overcrowding and lack of any sanitation. Finally, UNHCR officials handed the matter over to the notoriously aggressive Egyptian police.

On the night of Dec. 29, according to published accounts, Egyptian riot police began blasting the group with water canons and yelling through bullhorns that the protesters would be removed by force. The drenched refugees huddled together in the cold, steadfastly refusing to abandon the park

The next morning, 5,000 Egyptian riot police stormed through the group of unarmed protesters. The security forces, under order to end the protest, began “beating people indiscriminately”. The beatings resulted in 27 deaths, among them: 11 children and 8 women.

News of the massacre spread throughout the world, but quickly lost the interest of the international community.

Read More Displaced



More Reading:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-140425988.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/international/africa/03egypt.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6915187.stm
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=68039907456
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudanese_refugees_in_Egypt
http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR33/52-53.pdf
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article19503
www.jihadwatch.org/2005/.../egyptian-police-kill-10-sudanese-in-cairo.html
www.flickr.com/photos/fahamu/sets/1157901/
http://hub.witness.org/en/node/203
http://www.scdp-egypt.com/scdp_school.htm
http://news.adventist.org/2006/01/egypt-suaese-avetist-kille-i-cairo-violece.html
http://photos.cmaq.net/main.php?g2_itemId=6543
http://www.aucegypt.edu/ResearchatAUC/rc/cmrs/reports/Documents/schafer.pdf
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001331.html
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P1-115186740.html
www.northwestern.edu/studyabroad/documents/Emily_Eisenhart.pdf
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=256756
http://www.maplandia.com/sudan/news/26
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Weekly/Sudan/20051226.html
http://www.rsdwatch.org/index_files/Page4070.htm
http://www.darfuraustralia.org/files/Sudanese%20Refugees%20and%20Asylum%20Seekers%20in%20Cairo.pdf
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/770/eg14.htm
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article13388
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L05481280.htm
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/01/13/cairo_sudan/index.html
http://www.buzztracker.org/2005/12/30/Cairo.html
http://www.gossmission.org/goss/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=144&Itemid=192
http://www.anhri.net/en/focus/2005/pr1100.shtml
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2005/11/28/egypt-sudanese-protest-in-cairo/
www.fmreview.org/textOnlyContent/FMR/27/50.doc
http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/3/287
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/dec/30/sudan
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/30/world/africa/30iht-cairo.html
http://www.scdp-egypt.com/