‘Central security is here, I’m so scared’ says young Egypt woman moments before her arrest

A young Egyptian woman who denounced the regime in a video posted online has disappeared after leaving a voice message to the public.

“Central security is here. They’ve come for us at the coast. Do you hear me, I’m so scared. Central security is here.”

The Arabic hashtag “where is Radwa” is trending in Egypt, with social media users denouncing the regime’s widespread use of forcible disappearance as a tool to silence anyone who opposes the government.

“Down to military rule, down with Al-Sisi and all those who collaborate with him and all  those who are too scared to talk because of fear of arrest,” Radwa can be heard saying in the video.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has said the Sisi regime uses forcible disappearances systematically to terrify, opponents and wipe out peaceful dissent.

In the first six months of 2017 the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms said that 254 people had been forcibly disappeared by the regime.

READ: Global hunger strike campaign in support of Egypt political prisoners

The government denies it carries out forcible disappearances, for example claiming the Italian doctorate student Giulio Regeni had been hit by a car. His mutilated body, bearing all the hallmarks of torture, was found dumped by the side of the road nine days after he disappeared in January 2016.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has even resorted to forcibly disappearing babies – in June Manar Abu Naga was forcibly disappeared from her home in Alexandria along with her husband Omar and their one-year-old son Braa.

At the beginning of November security forces forcibly disappeared May Mohamed Abdel Sattar, her husband Islam Hussein and their three-month-old baby Fares.

Radwa has become one of an increasing number of women to be targeted by the regime. As protests spread across the country in September, authorities detained 83 women in that month alone.

Over 2,700 women have been tortured and degraded in detention centres across the country since the 2013 coup.

READ: Egypt spying on citizens’ mobile phones