UK flights return to Sharm as Egypt government continues war on civilians

The first British flight arrived in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh yesterday as severe human rights violations carried out by the Egyptian government continue to take place in the peninsula.

British Ambassador to Egypt Geoffrey Adams, who has consistently pushed for stronger cooperation between the two countries, tweeted that a team from the embassy was at the airport to welcome the flight from Birmingham.

Commercial flights to Sharm El-Sheikh airport were banned after a terror attack on a Russian airliner killed 224 people in October 2015.

After it was revealed that a bomb was smuggled onto the aircraft security procedures were placed under scrutiny.

Ambassador Adams has said that intensive cooperation on aviation security has allowed commercial flights to operate again.

Sharm El-Sheikh, in the South Sinai Governorate, was previously one of the most popular destinations for Brits.

At one time South Sinai generated a third of the country’s overall tourism revenue, however, the local Bedouin population is excluded from these profits in favour of Egyptians who have moved there from the Nile Valley.

READ: 4 Sinai civilians killed after Egypt army bombs house

For several years now the government has waged a disproportionate war on terror, concentrated in the northern governorate, that has seen indiscriminate force used against the local population.

Houses have been destroyed and hundreds of families forced to leave. Children are arbitrarily arrested and citizens forcibly disappeared.

Extrajudicial killings, torture, and kidnappings are rife.

In October four civilians including a ten-year-old boy were killed and 12 injured after a bomb was dropped on a house in Abu Al-Araj, Sheikh Zuweid.

Many of the Brits who travel to the peninsula looking for winter sun have no idea that such a war is being waged so close to their hotels.

Whilst the UK has consistently said it stands with Egypt in the fight against terror, it has not condemned the government’s heavy-handed war on civilians.