Egypt: authorities grant amnesty to many members of the Islamic State in North Sinai: suspicion of opaque agreements

ROMA – In recent years, the Egyptian authorities have entered into opaque amnesty agreements with alleged members of the Islamic State without making the criteria or conditions public, they denounce Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights. Evidence gathered by the two organizations and public statements by government officials suggest amnesty to some members of the group Sinai province, affiliated with ISIS and operating in North Sinai, was promised to push terrorists to lay down their weapons. But there has been no clarification from the government on whether or not it intends to prosecute those responsible for abuses such as mass killings of civilians and extrajudicial killings. “Amnesties for members of armed groups who abandon their weapons should never concern those who have intentionally committed serious crimes such as deliberately killing civilians,” comments Ahmed Salem, executive director of the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights.

The Wilayat Sinai group. It is a relatively small organization that has systematically targeted the Egyptian army, government forces and civilians since 2013, when Sinai was considered the poorest area in Egypt and the most discriminated against economically, politically and social. A year later, in 2014, the group swore allegiance to ISIS and was responsible – writes HRW – for serious violations of humanitarian law with crimes that could be considered war crimes. Since 2020, the group has started to lose power, but despite today’s relative calm, the authorities continue to control the territory extensively and prevent thousands of displaced residents from returning to their lands.

The opacity of the agreements. The government has not formally announced any amnesty, but public statements and those made to the media suggest otherwise. On May 15, 2022, Lieutenant Colonel Gharib Abdel Hafez, spokesperson of the Egyptian Armed Forces, in a television interview with Sada al-Balad, a pro-government network, said the military “treats all elements suspected of being affiliated with Wilayat Sinai in North Sinai, who turn themselves in at checkpoints, humanely.” He added that they are provided with “accommodation and shelter”. But while granting freedom to those allegedly responsible for war crimes – the organizations explain – the authorities illegally detain and abuse the women relatives of the men of Wilayat Sinai. The strategy used is probably to arrest wives, sisters, mothers, to force the men to turn themselves in.

What international law says. The laws of war encourage amnesties to end non-international armed conflicts, such as that in North Sinai, with the aim of promoting peace. But they expressly exclude anyone suspected, accused or convicted of committing war crimes. The Egyptian authorities should therefore make public the criteria used for granting the amnesty. From the reports of the media and local human rights organizations and on the basis of interviews conducted on the spot, it emerges that the military would have made agreements with some leaders in North Sinai: if they had convinced the members of Wilayat Sinai to turn themselves in, they would have interrogated them but not charged or arrested. Madam Masran independent online newspaper, writes that 23 fighters in Wilayat Sinai turned themselves in under the mediation of local leaders in 2020 and were released after a few months.

I crimini in Wilayat Sinai. Kidnappings, torture, extrajudicial executions: the list of crimes is long. According to National Human Rights Council more than 650 civilians were killed by militants in the Sinai in the years leading up to 2018. Last year HRW and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights interviewed four people living in North Sinai who said that in previous years they had seen some of their relatives, former members of Wilayat Sinai, living freely with their families, with salaries given by the state and official identity cards. Yet from the testimonies collected it appears that many of these former fighters who are now free organized and participated in public executions in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah when the group had strongholds in those areas.