Egypt: UN agency blamed for Sudanese refugee deaths

Arab and Middle East civil society groups are accusing a United Nations agency of collaborating with Egyptian police in action which caused the deaths of at least 25 Sudanese refugees in a downtown Cairo park on Friday (December 31). The refugees, including women and children, have been staging a public sit-in for the past three months protesting their treatment by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and were demanding relocation to a third country. But Friday evening, a police force of nearly 4,000 officers cordoned off the Sudanese encampment, fired water cannons at them and beat them indiscriminately. Hundreds were dragged into buses and transferred to unknown destinations.