New app gives location of forcibly disappeared in Egypt

An Egyptian human rights group has launched a mobile phone app to help locate activists who have been abducted by security forces.

The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) launched the initiative, I Protect, after it recorded 1,411 cases of enforced disappearances in Egypt in the first 10 months of 2015.

The programme sends an SOS message to three close friends, whose numbers have been pre-programmed, and an email to the ECRF who can then pinpoint their location on a map.

The interface of I Protect has been designed to look like a calculator so activating it does not rouse suspicion.

It is hoped that as well as preventing their enforced disappearance, speaking out about an arrest within the first 24 hours reduces the risk that detainees will be subject to torture.

Human rights groups have expressed grave concern at the rise in disappearances in Egypt where authorities continue to abduct citizens arbitrarily, without justification and without informing their families of their whereabouts or the reason they were arrested.