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Wednesday, 23 May 2018

HRW report accusing Egypt’s military of causing “widespread destruction” in Sinai tops coverage in the foreign press

It’s not a particularly pleasant day for Egypt in the international press this morning. A Human Rights Watch report accusing the Armed Forces of “widespread destruction of homes” in North Sinai is leading the conversation on Egypt in the foreign press this morning, with the Associated Press, Reuters and the Times of Israel among those taking note. In a report released yesterday, the New York-based organization claims that at least 3,000 homes and commercial buildings have been destroyed, in addition to “hundreds of hectares of farmland.”

HRW also published yesterday a letter two of its directors penned to FIFA imploring the latter to “use [its] leverage with the Egyptian authorities to push back against a vicious anti-gay campaign.” HRW is using as leverage the 2019 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, which Egypt is hosting.

Meanwhile, Egyptian journalist and researcher Ismail Alexandrani, who reported on the Sinai insurgency, was sentenced yesterday by a military court to 10 years in prison on terror-related charges, the AP reports. Alexandrani was detained back in 2015.

Also taking a kick at the can yesterday: Brookings adds nothing new to the debate about Egypt’s population boom, and the Daily Beast is carrying a piece on [redacted] harassment by former Financial Times Cairo correspondent Borzu Daragahi.

(A note to new readers: We’re all big boys and girls and can handle the word that should be up there in place of [redacted] before “harassment,” but the algorithms that govern our deliverability to your inbox penalize us for mentioning large sums of capital, anything smacking of intimacy, et cetera.)

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