Migrant Clash at Melilla Border Leaves Two Moroccan Police Dead, Multiple Casualties

"The provisional toll in the violent attack on the Melilla fence is eight dead, including two Moroccan police officers and six migrants (the toll would have risen to about twenty dead), and dozens of injured in the ranks of the police as well as the migrants, including 2 serious cases among the police and 12 serious cases on the side of the migrants," the AMDH said in a statement published Friday on its social networks.

Earlier in the day, the authorities of Nador also reported the death of at least two police officers and six migrants in these assaults by sub-Saharan migrants, reports the MAP, stressing that these attacks also left 140 Moroccan police officers injured, including five in serious condition.

On the Spanish side, at least 49 Civil Guards and 57 migrants were injured, according to figures published by the Government Delegation of Melilla. "A group of about 500 sub-Saharan migrants, perfectly organized and violent, forced the Barropn Chino border crossing at 8:40 am. In the Gourougou mountain, 2,000 migrants managed to access the city," the Delegation specified.

This invasion of migrants in Melilla is the first recorded since the normalization of relations between Spain and Morocco in April, after the change of position on the Sahara. It comes a few days before the NATO summit in Madrid on June 29 and 30. This is why security measures have been strengthened in the city.