A new report from the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights documents the harrowing scale of enforced disappearances in North Sinai from 2013 to date. Based on estimates from local activists and tribal leaders, these cases number between 3,000 and 3,500. The organization itself has directly documented the cases of 863 individuals, whose fate remains unknown (*).
Titled “Cast Into the Abyss: Untold stories of civilians swallowed by secret detention centers in Sinai”, the report aims “not only to document abuses but to push for accountability and truth,” according to the group’s director, Ahmed Salem.
The report, obtained by Al Manassa, focused exclusively on cases where the fate of disappeared individuals remained unknown to their families. It deliberately excluded instances where detention or death had been confirmed.
Its findings were based on interviews with 42 local activists and tribal leaders from across North Sinai. Each interviewee was required to possess either direct or indirect knowledge of enforced disappearances and related abuses.
Checkpoint detentions
According to the report, waves of mass arrests and enforced disappearances, often occurring at checkpoints and during random campaigns, have been directly tied to the escalation of attacks by the Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in North Sinai.
The attacks extended across Rafah, Sheikh Zuweid, Al-Arish, and expanded westward to Bir Al-Abd and Galbana.
The report further documented how security agencies would summon citizens for investigation, only for them to be taken to unofficial detention centers, initiating their disappearance.
Citizens were often arrested during random security sweeps or at roadside checkpoints, according to interviewees, who described hours-long interrogations and detention at undisclosed locations.
Other residents simply vanished after complying with phone calls summoning them to security offices for investigation. In one instance, the father of a missing man stated his son’s file was number 2,870 in an internal registry held by Al-Waseem Association, a local group affiliated with businessman Ibrahim Al-Organi, indicating the phenomenon’s sheer scale.
According to Salem, Al-Organi’s association has opened its headquarters in North Sinai to receive reports of the disappeared, despite no official announcements. “We’re in a small community, and information travels quickly,” he added.
Torture and medical neglect
The report, based on survivor accounts, details egregious torture and severe medical neglect within unofficial detention sites. Detainees reportedly faced electrocution and sexual assault, while others were denied critical health care. Several individuals are said to have died in custody.
The organization called on Egyptian authorities to take several key steps, including signing the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, amending the definition of “torture” in the penal code, and acceding to the Second Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.
It also urged the closure of secret prisons and the unconditional release of detainees held without charge.
Beyond these legislative and immediate demands, other recommendations include establishing an independent commission of judges, rights defenders, and tribal leaders to investigate disappearances, and compensating the victims' families.
The report also called for empowering the National Council for Human Rights to monitor and hold perpetrators accountable. It urged the establishment of a body affiliated with the public prosecutor to investigate disappearance reports, monitoring all places of detention, and investigating unofficial cases.
The foundation confirmed it sent official letters to several government agencies, including the Ministries of Defense and Interior and the National Council for Human Rights, inquiring about alleged violations.
However, it had not received a response by the time the report was published.
“The report is an attempt to acknowledge the injustice suffered by families who weren’t even allowed to grieve, and victims whose names and voices were obliterated in cells not subject to any judicial oversight,” Salem explained.
He noted that the foundation has worked for years to document testimonies from families of the forcibly disappeared and analyze official and unofficial data, seeking to understand what transpired in Sinai during “a decade of systematic violations.”
“The lack of transparency and the authorities’ refusal to open real channels of communication with independent organizations only adds to the mystery and suffering of the victims’ families and exacerbates the Egyptian government’s already poor human rights record,” Salem stated.
In early July, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms renewed its call for the government to ratify the 2006 UN Convention against enforced disappearance, citing an expansion of such cases in the past decade.
Earlier this year, the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) team released its report reviewing Egypt's human rights record, which included 343 recommendations from 137 countries, most notably combating enforced disappearances, ending the rotation of detainees, releasing political prisoners, and ensuring media freedom.
The UN Committee Against Torture had previously urged Egypt to criminalize enforced disappearance, shut down secret detention sites, and allow independent oversight.
