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Fleeing War, Poverty, African Migrants Face Racism in Egypt

Associated Press

   CAIRO, EGYPT - Two Sudanese sisters, Seham and Ekhlas Bashir, were
   walking their children home from elementary school in a Cairo
   neighborhood when a group of Egyptian teenagers crowded around them.
   The boys taunted them, calling them "slave" and other slurs. Then they
   tried to rip off Ekhlas' clothes.

   An onlooker intervened, scolding the young harassers, and the sisters
   and their three children managed to escape. But they were shaken.

   They had just arrived in Cairo months earlier, fleeing violence in
   their homeland. The harassment brought up traumatic memories of
   detention, torture and rape they said they experienced at the hands of
   militias in Sudan's Nuba mountains.

   "We have come here seeking safety," said Ekhlas, recounting the
   incident that took place in November. "But the reality was very
   different."

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