Sinai attacks double economic losses in Egypt

The large-scale human casualties of the Sinai attacks have been dwarfed in importance to the Egyptian government by their effect on the economy. The economic losses are even more serious, coming as they do ahead of a conference in the peninsula planned by President Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi to revive the ailing Egyptian economy.

According to Rassd news network, political activist Anas Hassan has pointed to the contradiction of the approach which Al-Sisi follows to deal with the incidents in Egypt; this, he argues, “proves” the president’s confusion.

“Al-Sisi is now between two positions,” explained Hassan. “Incidents [such as the war against the Muslim Brotherhood] that are always politically exploited and for which the mass media are always recruited, and incidents [such as the Sinai attacks] which are the largest in our history, which have a news blackout imposed on them.”

At least 26 people, mostly soldiers, have been killed and dozens more wounded in a series of attacks targeting military bases in the north of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Most of the casualties have been in the provincial capital, El-Arish.

The Egyptian Association for the Help of Juveniles and Human Rights, which supports Al-Sisi, said in a statement that the Sinai attacks have caused massive economic losses ahead of the international economic conference slated for March in Sharm Al-Sheikh. The group said that the attacks also come ahead of parliamentary elections, the third stage of the roadmap decided by the coup authorities in July 2013.

Pro-coup security expert Major General Sameh Seif El-Yazal said that the current escalation of the crisis in Egypt is “pre-planned”. It is, he noted, aimed at “weakening” the Egyptian economy, which will have an effect on the Sharm Al-Sheikh conference.