'I was afraid, I was only 17': Rights group accuses Egypt of allegedly recruiting child fighters

A human rights organisation accused Egypt of committing "acts amounting to war crimes" by allegedly recruiting child fighters for its ongoing armed conflict against an armed insurgency in the restive North Sinai province.

On Tuesday, Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR), an Egyptian group based in the UK, released a controversial report documenting several cases of children who either were injured or lost their lives while reportedly fighting alongside armed forces or pro-government militias, violating international laws ratified by the North African country.

The group explained that the report is based on in-depth interviews with 15 relatives of children recruited by the Egyptian armed forces or pro-government militias as well as open-source social media platforms.

"In 2020…I could participate in war. In the beginning, I was afraid, I was only 17, but my uncle and an officer trained me in fire arming for almost two months. When I learned, I wanted to participate, so I quit school," a child fighter told the group under a pseudonym.

The Egyptian government conducted several counter-insurgency operations in the restive province but has been routinely accused of violating the rights of residents.

"In one case, we managed to geolocate a school used as a military outpost housed a child soldier recruited within a tribal militia, based on open-source satellite imagery… published by personal accounts of members of pro-government militias, official accounts of these militias or accounts attributed to 'Wilayat Sina'," the report read.

"The armed forces assigned some enlisted children aged 15 - 18 with tasks such as spying or delivering food supplies, which exposed them to [the IS local branch]," the report claimed.

"The 'Wilayat Sina' group chased these children and brutally killed them later. The Egyptian government failed to prevent its allied militias from recruiting and using children under 18 in hostilities against the [militant] group," it added.

In a report published in May last year, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the Arabic-language sister publication to The New Arab, revealed similar findings.

Witnesses told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that tribal leaders encouraged children aged under 18 to take part in counter-insurgency operations, particularly those with family members already in the force.

The Egyptian army does not prevent or return children found in the tribal militias despite more than 100 of them being killed in battle, the Arabic language paper reported back then, citing activist Zohdi Jawad.

"When you convince a generation to take up arms as a solution to the prevailing crises and problems, then you only expect chaos. There is no law, no reason, or conscience that accepts children being part of the war," Jawad told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

In 2012, a wide-scale counter-terrorism operation was initiated by the Egyptian security forces in North Sinai province against militants of Egypt's branch of the Islamic State (IS), known as "Wilayat Sinai" later named Ansar Bayt El-Maqdes (the Supporters of Jerusalem).

Until 2021, the death toll of civilians in North Sinai reached 1,836, while 2,915 were injured, according to a government survey cited by the report.

Meanwhile, SFHR called on foreign governments "to hold Egypt accountable to its international commitments related to enlisting children in armed conflict."

Recruiting and using children under 15 as soldiers is prohibited under international humanitarian law - treaty and custom - and is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court.

"Governments should prevent the recruitment of children under 18 by armed groups, and they should ensure the release of those who are found to be recruited," the report recommended.

"Policymakers in the US and Western capitals should weigh these actions against foreign aid, especially military aid, to ensure that funds are not complicit in these practices," the group added.

The rights group further demanded the UN Security Council refer the case to the International Criminal Court "to investigate the possible war crimes of enlisting children under 15."

Earlier this year, a months-long investigation, also conducted by SFHR, revealed that about 40 schools had been used as military bases for fighting terrorism in the restless province.

The army took over a total of 37 schools and 59 destroyed during ten years of fighting in the Sinai between Egyptian authorities and militants affiliated with ISIS, the Guardian reported in March, citing the group's findings.

Despite a noticeable decline in armed attacks, now President Sisi issued a 2021 decree that granted the defence minister broad powers to impose extreme measures on the North Sinai residents, reportedly without proper oversight, such as curfew and forced evictions, renewable every six months as long as insurgency continues in the province.