KHARTOUM, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese army said on Thursday that it thwarted an attempt to smuggle 21 illegal immigrants across Sudanese territories to Libya.
"A new human trafficking operation of 21 foreigners, including five girls, to Libya across the western road in the desert, was aborted today," the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an affiliate of the Sudanese army, said in a statement.
The arrested people have been transferred to the police station to complete the legal procedures against them, RSF added.
Considered as one of the crosspoints for human trafficking and illegal immigration, Sudan has recently been witnessing increasing organized groups involved in these activities.
In Oct. 2014, Sudan hosted an international conference on combating human trafficking and illegal immigration with the participation of African and European countries.
Khartoum says it is maintaining high-level coordination with Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia from Africa, and Europe's Italy, Spain, France and Britain to tackle the problem.
Earlier, European countries vowed support for Sudan in combatting human trafficking after Khartoum asked for logistical air and sea support to pursue multinational human smugglers.
