Returned to Leave.. A new chapter of the Continued Forced Displacement Ordeal of the Indigenous people of Sinai

This report presents documentation and legal analysis of the displacement incidents of the local people of Sinai who have just returned to the villages of south Sheikh Zuwied and south and west of Rafah, eastern Sinai, Egypt, years after leaving their houses and their lands due to military operations. The report is based on interviews conducted by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, between October 2022 and January 2024, with 42 locals who answered the government and the Northern Sinai governor’s calls in the past two years, to return to their lands and promising to provide help once they return.

 

These testimonies unveil a clear contradiction between the official statements encouraging the return of the displaced locals and the reality of the renewed displacement of the returnees. This contradiction has been acknowledged by some official statements, for example, the statement by the Commander of the Second Field army on the 3rd of June 2023, highlighting that the call upon the citizens to return was overhasty considering the armed forces have not accomplished clearing the remnants of war.

 

The legal analysis uncovers various state departments’ breaches of the constitutional and legal commitments that the consecutive Egyptian governments have ratified, in addition to the obvious contradiction to Egypt’s Public International stance rejecting forced displacement policies. This breach is highlighted in the absence of legal guarantees to appeal such decisions, the absence of fair financial and moral compensation, and the lack of transparency in communicating with the displaced residents regarding the time scope of their displacement and the security and living situations in the areas where they were displaced from and their prospect date of return.

 

The report includes as well documentation of an attempt to communicate with the Office of Governor of Northern Sinai to obtain an official clarification regarding the testimonies included in the report. The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights sent an official letter to Major General Mohamed Abdel-Fadil Shousha governor of Northern Sinai on the 10th of January 2024, containing some of the questions put forward by the displaced, and the Sinai Foundation has yet to receive any reply from the governorate until the publishing of this report. 

 

The report concludes with several recommendations aiming at the state’s compliance with the constitutional and legal guarantees of the rights of the residents of these areas. On top of these recommendations is the necessity of compliance with transparency and the residents’ rights in obtaining factual information on the situation in the areas from where they were displaced and the post-war reconstruction plan, the guarantee of fair financial compensation to the displaced locals, and the guarantee of an immediate return to those who would like to return, or to announce clearly that the urgency status and the compelling reasons that led to their initial displacement still exists.