In the Sinai, attacks by groups affiliated with ISIS against Christians
and Egyptian security forces continue. Poorly trained in
counterinsurgency, the Egyptian army is
struggling to prevent fighters from Libya, Iraq and Syria entering the
Sinai. But its use of harsh repression, especially against the Bedouin,
is counterproductive, with part of Sinai’s youth turning to the enemy
the state is trying to destroy. Ismail Alexandrani, later imprisoned for
his criticism of President Sissi’s security policy, examines the causes
of resistance in the Sinai, followed by the emergence of jihadist
groups, in ‘Sinai’s undeclared war’.
