Security analysts had been warning for some time that the Sinai
was becoming an operating base for militant jihadis. The local tribesmen, who
for centuries have smuggled goods across borders they do not recognise, have
been bringing in arms looted from Libya's armouries, some for militants in Gaza
some for their own use. It has not been established how many militants from
outside the Sinai might also have been drawn to the region for the apparent ease
with which they could operate outside the purview of Egyptian security. One of
Israel's best known and most authoritative defence analysts, Ehud
Yaari, wrote in a report published in January: "Measures are needed
to prevent the total collapse of security in and around the peninsula [and]
avoid the rise of an armed runaway Bedouin statelet."
He noted that armed gangs had been trafficking hundreds of
people, mainly from the Horn of Africa or sub-Saharan Africa, who paid them
thousands of dollars to ensure their passage through the border into Israel. It
was to stop the influx of illegal immigrants as much as for security reasons
that Israel embarked on its project to build a massive security fence along its
Sinai border.
For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt
Politics & Security. © 2012 Menas Associates
