Egypt ramps up home demolitions in Sinai

BEIRUT – Agence France-Presse

Egypt’s army has drastically stepped up its demolitions of homes, businesses and farms in the Sinai since launching a widespread campaign against militants in February, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday.

The watchdog said it documented at least 3,000 homes and commercial properties destroyed in the peninsula, where Egypt has battled a long-running jihadist insurgency, as well as 600 razed just before the latest military operation.

“Turning people’s homes into rubble is part of the same self-defeating security plan that has restricted food and movement to inflict pain on Sinai residents,” said HRW’s Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson.

“The Egyptian army claims it is protecting people from militants, but it’s absurd to think that destroying homes and displacing lifelong residents would make them safer.”

The New York-based group said the demolitions and forced evictions, near the border with the Gaza Strip in northern Sinai, was making an already perilous humanitarian situation worse.

It said it sent letters to the defense ministry and the local governor over the demolitions but had yet to receive a response.