Two years ago, Egyptian authorities sent kids to capture stray dogs living around Saint Catherine’s Protectorate and told them they would be put into a fenced gate next to the checkpoint. “Instead, they made a hole and buried the dogs,” one Sinai resident told me. “Half of them alive.”
As world leaders gathered in the Sinai Peninsula for Cop27, Egyptian authorities once again offered 500 Egyptian pounds for dogs from Saint Catherine’s Monastery to be removed. It was part of a mass cleanup as the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi presses ahead with the Grand Transfiguration Project, a mega-tourism hub it is building in this peaceful retreat which will encompass five-star hotels, a restaurant, shopping bazaars, a visitor’s centre and more.
A scorching day inside Egypt’s Tanta Prison and Emad Kamil is straining to hear news from his relatives. They have been placed on one side of the hall with 50 other visitors. Emad is on the other side, over one metre away, with 15 other prisoners.
Two sets of wire mesh separate them, police officers patrol the space in between and Emad suspects there are informants present. A jumble of voices travel across the space. It’s impossible to get accurate information about the charges against him.
Shortly before the 11 year anniversary of the Day of Rage Egyptian activist living in the US, Aly Hussin Mahdy, sent me two videos which had been recorded inside Katameya Prison in Egypt. The videos are believed to have been filmed in 2021 and show inmates being tortured. In the footage, an inmate is blindfolded and lies face down on the floor with his hands tied to his legs behind his back, whilst others have wounds on their legs and backs.
I co-hosted a podcast ‘Untold Stories’ with Egyptian journalist Osama Gaweesh about the tragic deaths of 27 people who drowned at the end of November trying to cross the English Channel, the sea which separates England from France. We were joined by Sally Hough, who runs a weekly drop-in for refugees, and Green Party Councillor Georgina Treloar.
Illustration by Kit Lloyd
