Mass Graves in North Sinai

<p>Since 2013, mounting evidence has pointed to serious human rights violations committed against civilians by the Egyptian military during its campaign against ISIS-affiliated militants in the North Sinai region. These violations include extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial detention.</p> <p>The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR) obtained testimonies from two members of a local militia allied with the Egyptian military in its war against ISIS, revealing the existence of mass graves in two separate locations in North Sinai.</p> <p>According to their accounts, the Egyptian military used these sites to bury the bodies of detainees held in unofficial detention facilities between 2016–2019. They described how groups of blindfolded, handcuffed, detainees were taken out, executed in field operations, and buried in these locations.</p> <p>SFHR’s team located one of these mass graves approximately 20km from a site known as Battalion 101. Battalion 101, in the city of Al-Arish, was the central command headquarters for Egyptian military operations against ISIS in the region and an unofficial detention site used by the same military. SFHR has collected dozens of testimonies from former detainees who endured severe torture at Battalion 101. Many of them reported that detainees were taken away under the pretense of being released, only to never return home.</p> <p>SFHR conducted two site visits to the mass grave site and its surroundings. During these visits, they documented the presence of numerous human remains and collected evidence to support further investigation.</p>