Egyptian, Sudanese die in Mine Blast Crossing from Egypt to Libya

Two men were killed on Sunday and 29 other people were injured after their convoy that was illegally crossing from Egypt into Libya entered a minefield, a medical source said.

Mahmoud Zahran, a Health Ministry official in the northern Egyptian city of Marsa Matrouh, said an Egyptian and a Sudanese man died when their vehicle, which was travelling in a convoy with two others, hit landmines inside Libya.

Health officials and Egypt’s state news agency said all the injured were Egyptians, except for two Sudanese. Reports had earlier said the two dead were both Egyptian.

Egyptians have traditionally sought work in Libya, but the conflict that toppled Muammar Gaddafi last year forced many to leave.

A recovery in Libyan oil output to near pre-war levels is luring many back, however, at a time when Egypt’s economy has been hammered by the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt’s state news agency said the injured were brought to a hospital in Salloum, an Egyptian town near the border.

The north coast of Egypt and Libya is littered with landmines laid during World War Two by Germany and Britain and their respective allies, according to Reuters.