By Ebi Kesiena
Three children of a Nigerian migrant died in Morocco in a fire at their makeshift shelter near the North African country’s border with a Spanish enclave, a non-governmental organisation said.
President of the local division of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH), Mohamed Amin Abidar, explained that a mother lit a fire within the confines of their shelter to warm her children, but the children were choked by the fire that took hold in their makeshift tent.
They had set up a temporary home in the wooded northwestern Gourougou mountain range, which borders the Spanish territory of Melilla.
The mother was admitted to hospital in the city of Nador in a critical condition.
No further details were made available by the Moroccan authorities.
The Gourougou range has become a refuge for many sub-Saharan African migrants seeking to cross the roughly 12-kilometre (7.5-mile) razor-wired triple-fence that separates Moroccan territory from Melilla.
According to Abidar, the death of the three children was a terrible tragedy, adding that migrants in this region live in precarious and inhumane conditions.
Many migrants seek to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta, giving them direct access to European Union territory on the African mainland.
Some 700 migrants an unprecedented number attempted to cross into Melilla in October but were rebuffed by Moroccan border forces.
