The Sinai peninsula has become the place where islamists, migrant smugglers, petty criminals and other dangerous people have come to roam.
And roam they do. There seems to be no one at the helm, when it comes to taking control of the Sinai.
The Egyptian civil war has made patrolling the area nearly impossible, and all of those unfortunates who live in it, or at its borders are in danger of encroaching on the nefarious activities of the criminals.
The few military/police forces stationed in the area are left to fend for themselves. They are outnumbered and outskilled by the desert criminals.
The Sinai is not some tiny, forgotten corner of the world. It is the size of Ireland, and it will take a lot more than wishful thinking to bring it under control. It will be, in many ways, what tests whether Egypt can maintain its political and orderly integrity.
The Sinai however, is devolving faster than the Egyptian army can study the situation and find solutions.
Already Islamists have started to wage the usual campaign of bombing and mayhem. Bombs have been exploded at the Sinai governorate, and the headquarters in RAfah. Nine people have already perished.
What favors the criminals, and the climate of lawlessness, is the Sinai's forbidding geological features. Forever a place of extremes, only nomads and hardened desert dwellers can survive there.
One of the reasons that Sinai is prey to such mayhem, is the 'relocation' of bedouin tribes that have lived in the Sinai for millennia. They were driven out by the tourist trade and the tourist construction in the resort cities that borders the three seas.
Without the tough, tribal and strict rules that governed the beduoin land, the Sinai crashed into lawlessness.
Most of the Islamists in the Sinai come from Sudan, others from Gaza. They have made themselves at home in the peninsula and built safe havens from themselves in three distinct zones.
Apparently, the Islamists have emitted a fatwa, not a real one, since they are not a theological authority, that all police and army are to be considered infidels, who therefore can be killed.
The withdrawal of funds from the US, although counterbalanced in part by generous donations from Saudi Arabia, among others, did nothing to better the prospect of bringing the Sinai to a state of relative control.
The military for now, is centered in the mainland, principally in Cairo and the storied Aegyptian monuments, which have come under the attacks of looters and islamists alike. The way the military sees it, there is no leeway for them to be able to send contingents to the Sinai.
But if the Sinai is not brought under control, it could constitute a grave danger, one that could destabilize the fragile equilibrium of the middle east even further. Let's not forget how strategically important the Sinai is. From there, attacks can be launched on three fronts. And it is within striking range of both Israel and Saudi ARabia.
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Source : Spiegel/ 10.16.13
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