Manurhin under fire: The French company helping load Egyptian military's guns

France's undisguised aid in this enterprise has been a boon to its military industrialists. Behind juggernauts such as Dassault and Naval Group, there is Manurhin which has been active in Egypt since Nasser's 1956-1970 presidency. 

Despite the unprecedented repression of dissenting voices under Sisi's regime, this French company continues to  export its ammunition manufacturing machinery.

The Rabaa massacre

A Manurhin machine manufactured in France was supposed to be delivered to Egypt on 12 August 2013, two days before "the largest single-day massacre in contemporary history" according to Human Rights Watch. That day saw more than 800 people killed during the evacuation of the Rabaa sit-in.

In the weeks preceding the operation, there were daily deadly confrontations between the army and the supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi, ousted by the army on 3 July, 2013. 

It was in this context that, according to our sources, French customs confiscated a Manurhin machine used to manufacture cases for 20mm and  40mm cartridges; the same specifications as the rubber bullets and tear gas used by the riot control force. 

The day before the scheduled delivery, tensions had reached fever pitch in Cairo.

Several thousand Morsi supporters were still occupying the Rabaa al-Adawiyaa square and mosque when the Egyptian prime minister announced the government's "irreversible" evacuations.

There was no suspension or reevaluation of licences for crowd control equipment heading for Egypt

At daybreak on 14 August, security forces circled the square and charged on the protesters. The carnage was anticipated and planned, as ministers in charge at the time have claimed, planning on "up to 3,500 casualties". On the day, French minister for foreign affairs Laurent Fabius demanded an "immediate end to the repression".

The European response came quickly.

On August 21 2013, the 28 member states decided to "suspend all export licences to Egypt of any equipment that could be used for domestic repression and to reevaluate existing export licences".

This declaration was signed by all European ministers for foreign affairs. While this written agreement is not an embargo in the judicial sense, then Prime Minister Jean-Marc Aynault remembers having ordered "the scrupulous respect of the unanimous decision by the European Council".

Read more: Sisi's only election pledge is to widen his crackdown

France however, chose to ignore this European agreement: There was no suspension or reevaluation of licences for crowd control equipment heading for Egypt. 

While it's true that Manurhin does not provide weapons or ammunition directly for use against the Egyptian population, the company "belongs to the defence sector and its activity is entirely controlled by governmental bodies," as its CEO Remy Thannberger explained to Orient XXI.

Indeed, the sole use of its machines is to manufacture cartridges of varied calibres. For each new contract, the company must ask a formal authorisation from the Inter-ministry Commission for War Equipment Exports (ICWEE), which is chaired by the general-secretary for defence and security, who falls under the direct authority of the prime minister.

The GMDNS thus ruled that it did not represent an immediate threat to Egyptian civilians and decided to allow the machine through

On 22 August 2013, the day after the European declaration, the General Ministry for Defence and National Security (GMDNS) held an emergency meeting to study the delicate problem of the Manurhin equipment that might be "misused to maintain order" and was held at customs.

As this machine is only one part of a whole chain of production, it cannot on its own manufacture tear gas or any other kind of ammunition. According to our sources, the GMDNS thus ruled that it did not represent an immediate threat to Egyptian civilians and decided to allow the machine through, which was delivered to an Egyptian plant with some delay.

Remy Thannberger has told us that he does not have "any recollection" of this episode but has emailed us to specify that the French State has "systematically renewed all its export licences towards Egypt". We have reached out to the GMDNS, who did not wish to comment due to the "top-secret" nature of the matter. 

Hungry for European arms

Why, then, did French authorities choose to turn a blind eye to the matter, in clear contradiction with Laurent Fabius' declarations and Jean-Marc Ayrault's instructions?

"France did not want to upset its relationship with Egypt at a time when it sensed they were hungry for European armament contracts," or so claims an anonymous agent who worked in close relation with the industry of defence at the time.

	A protester shows tear gas cartridges shot by Egypt's riot police during clashes between protesters and riot police near the interior ministry, 3 February, 2012 in Cairo, Egypt. [Getty]

Negotiations with the French group DCNS (now Naval Group) were ongoing at the time to seal the deal on four one-billion euro corvettes. A year earlier, Egypt had bought German submarines, which came as a surprise to everyone. But elsewhere, more and more American officials were calling for an end to military aid to Egypt after the bloody repression against Morsi supporters.

A simple reduction in American arms transfers and military aid worth US$1.6 billion a year, would have meant a broader market would open up to its competitors. 

In 2013 - the year of the Rabaa massacre - Egypt was Manurhin's top client, with orders totalling US$11 billion worth of machinery and services, according to the company's financial report, which paid lip service to "recent events in Egypt and a few Middle-Eastern countries" that led to an "increase in alert levels in order to best assess potential risk as well as seize new opportunities".

In 2013 - the year of the Rabaa massacre - Egypt was Manurhin's top client

While condemned by the international community, Egypt is considered by some to be a land of "opportunity", and Manurhin's directors are not wrong.

When the army returned to power and Sisi was elected to power in June 2014, Egypt became the French defence industry's number two client. Within two years, Egypt bought Rafale planes, two Mistral ships and one frigate.

Manurhin did not need the help of Dassault or Naval Group to show interest in Egypt. Its 2013, its sales actually corresponded to ongoing contracts signed a few years before the 2011 revolution.

In 2010, when Hosni Mubarak was still in the race for the title of longest-serving dictator, Manurhin won a "big contract worth tens of millions of dollars. Other deals had been signed in 2008, as CEO Remy Thannberger explained to us. 

Two production lines set up in Cairo

"We have an enduring relationship with Egypt," Remy Thannberger said, adding that the company's general director, Robert Nhuyen, has already met Sisi himself.

French newspaper La Tribune reported that between 2011 and 2015, nearly 80 machines manufacturing ammunition of different calibres had been delivered to two plants set up in Cairo.

According to our sources, since 2015 a few dozen others have followed suit in order to establish two fully operational  production lines by the end of 2017. Those lines are today capable of single handedly producing several million 7.62mm and 9mm cartridges.

These calibers correspond to handgun and kalashnikov ammunition. By the summer of 2016, Maurhin had also completed its delivery of machines manufacturing 20mm, 23mm and 40mm cartridges, which were ordered before the revolution of 2011, the very ones which could have been used during the Rabaa massacre. 

By the summer of 2016, Mahurin had also completed its delivery of machines manufacturing 20 mm, 23mm and 40mm cartridges

Today, a few contracts remain in place. Upcoming deliveries will give the Egyptian army machines with the capacity to manufacture 12.7mm calibers used in heavy machine guns.

They will be located on the industrial site of Abu Zaabal, on the outskirts of Cairo, where two plants working with Manurhin, Shubra and Maasara, have also recently relocated. These plants are under direct control of the ministry for military production, and are the fourth and fifth most important companies of the Egyptian military-industrial complex, according to the Egyptian newspaper Masr al-Arabia.

Pictures and captions on their Arabic website show how the army uses the locations to manufacture ammunition for kalashnikovs, machine-guns and semi-automatic rifles, among others.

Across Egypt, government forces have killed more than 3,000 people since 2013

Along with the F-16s, these new models are used in the bombing of North Sinai, a province adjacent to the Gaza strip, where security forces have tried to uproot jihadist cells.

Those military operations, such as the one launched on 9 February kill civilians, who die as collateral victims caught between two lines of fire. Across Egypt, government forces have killed more than 3,000 people since 2013, according to a report by Sherif Mohy-Eldin, a security and counter terrorism expert for the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. 

A German subcontractor under suspicion

Manurhin does not act alone to do business with Egypt.

Some of the machines popular with Egypt require it to use a German subcontractor, Fritz Werner, known for having done business with both Iran and Iraq during the war which tore these two neighbours apart for 10 years in the 1980s.

But today, Germany is more wary than France of Egyptian security forces who have not thought twice about firing on civilians since the Egyptian revolution began.

In the months following Mubarak's exit, Fritz Werner was supposed to deliver to Manurhin 10 presses and cutting machines necessary for Egypt's 9mm cartridge production.

But the German company failed to "receive its licences extension" from the authorities, as Jansen Detlev, its CEO, regretfully explained in a letter dated 9 November 2012, and addressed to Manurhin which Orient XXI has consulted. He adds that, "the reason is probably linked to the political troubles going on since 2011".

A year later, on 18 October 2013, the two companies specialised in armement machine tools came to an agreement: The German subcontractor would ship four more machines that do not require authorisation from the government to reach Egypt through Manurhin.

These are "washing machines" and "furnaces" which do not need export licences says Jansen Detlev, Fritz Werner's CEO, who we contacted by email. The German subcontractor can thus dispense with the government's green light for a few specific machines. 

European regulations are difficult to enforce

This judicial lapse in European and German rules allowed Fritz Werner to maintain its business with Manurhin and Egypt, without raising suspicion.

In Germany, the Federal Bureau of Export Control has confirmed that "no licence for the setting up of machines manufacturing ammunition in Egypt was delivered between 2005 and 2017".

But, if Fritz Werner's bolts and furnaces are harmless on their own, they are being used to assemble machines used to manufacture ammunition.

Although stricter in appearance, the German authorities only managed to slow down deliveries from Manurhin-Fritz Werner to Egypt. The hurdles put in place by German law have delayed the installation of machines in Cairo, but by the end of 2017, the two lines of production manufacturing 7.62mm and 9mm were indeed working and ready to use. 

Beyond the matter of France's premier cartridge manufacturer's Egyptian adventures, this affair raises the question of the value of European decisions.

What is their use if the two top European powers, Germany and France, decided to sidestep engagements taken by their own respective ministers, Guido Westerwelle and Laurent Fabius, in 2013?

Former prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault explained that, despite his clear instruction, "not all decisions make it to the prime minister's desk" and that he does not remember the Manurhin case. 

Amnesty International considers that France cannot maintain its current position vis-a-vis Manurhin's business with Egypt.

Aymeric Elluin, an advocacy programme manager for "armement and fight against impunity" at the NGO, is now calling for the state to respect the Common Position 2008/944/PESC of the December 8 2008 Council which outlines the common rules governing the European Union control of exports of military technology and equipment concerning arms export. It recommends the suspension of all exports of weapons and related materials "susceptible to be used for domestic repression". 



This is an edited translation of an article from our partners at Orient XXI.

Omar Sultan is a Middle East journalist. 

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.