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Violence on the Israeli-Egypt border has opened up an opportunity for Egypt to rescue African asylum seekers who are being kidnapped on the Sinai Peninsula, according to the Catholic bishops of the Middle East.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has declared that Egypt will “control all parts of Sinai”, where clashes have been occurring between militants and Egyptian soldiers. The Al-Qaeda-inspired militants are seeking to set up an Islamic state in the area.
The Catholic bishops of the Holy Land — including Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal, Melkite Archbishop Elias Chacour and Holy Land Custos Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa — urged Egypt to act on the crisis facing Sinai asylum seekers.
“We, the heads of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, continue to call out to the world in our deep concern for the fate of the African asylum seekers who have been kidnapped as they pass through Sinai,” they said.
The bishops said hundred of victims, many kidnapped in Sinai while on their way from Eritrea and Sudan, “are being tortured — suspended by the limbs, burnt by white hot irons, electrocuted on their body parts and systematically raped.”
“At this very moment, the relatives of the victims are paying extortion money to release their loved ones,” they said. “May the cry of the oppressed be heard by those who now have the opportunity to release them from their bondage.”
Up till now, Egyptian authorities have cited the 1978 Camp David agreement with Israel as a reason for being unable to act effectively in the demilitarised Sinai Peninsula.
But now that forces have been deployed against the Islamic militants, the bishops said, the Egyptian authorities should seize the chance to come to the aid of Sinai asylum seekers “and make sure the trafficking in human beings stops”.
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Image: Mondoweiss
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