Connor Norton - Campaign against Islamic State in Egypt is creating a humanitarian crisis, says rights group

Egypt has recently begun an anti-ISIL campaign in the terror- and poverty-stricken northern region of Sinai, effectively placing a military embargo on the whole region in a move that humanitarian groups say chokes out resources currently being distributed to innocent civilians in need of assisstance during this period of turmoil. The military has, in response to an order by president Abdel Fatah Al-Sissi, begun blocking the movement of all people and goods into/inside Sinai in an effort to cripple the branch of Daesh known as Wilayat Sinai, provoking a negative response from the Human Rights Watch organization, which claims to have interviewed 13 residents and 2 media workers while reviewing satellite data, all to conclude that this program has, instead of hurting terrorists, cut off food and other necessities to the 420,000-some-odd residents of the region. Whether this actually leads to any major gains against Daesh remains to be seen, and media coverage of the situation is spotty due to Egyptian governmental backlash against investigative journalism in Sinai, but what seems to be clear is that there is serious potential for harm in choking off everyone, even if it means getting your hands around ISIL.

This ties to the Red Scare in US history in which the government got over-zealous in its attempts to quell threats posed by communists, crippling the lives and careers of a number of innocent and/or sincerely believing Americans with bunk trials and political witch hunts. In both situations, a government took legitimate fears of domestic terrorism (debatable for the US) and coupled slapdash enforcement with drastic and perhaps indiscriminate executive action to create a situation in which the main brunt of the governmental blow was beared by an innocent populace.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/campaign-against-islamic-state-in-egypt-is-creating-a-humanitarian-crisis-says-rights-group/2018/04/23/c7a6ed6b-5509-4d4a-bc94-510b5531360b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cd56c7ec9d3f