Could unrest in Egypt's northwest threaten international projects?

In Egypt's northwestern Mediterranean province of Marsa Matrouh, where lucrative real estate deals and high-stakes tourist projects are underway, tensions are escalating between state authorities and local tribes after police killed two tribesmen earlier this month.   

The brewing unrest began after a tribesman killed three low-ranking policemen and fled. In a move that then has sparked widespread anger, police allegedly detained dozens of women from the suspect's tribe to glean any information about his whereabouts—an act of collective punishment that crossed a major red-line for Egypt's ultra-conservative Bedouin community.

In response, the tribe handed over two of male members believed by police to possess information about the suspect. Days later, these two men were found dead on one of the province's desert highways.

'Seeds of distrust'

According to the Egyptian interior ministry, which manages the police force, the two deceased men were accused of being involved in the killing of the three low-ranking policemen.

They had opened fire on the policemen who were on their way to arrest them, the ministry claimed in a statement on 11 April, adding that two machine guns and ammunition were found in the possession of the two men after their killing.

However, the tribes deny all these charges, saying that the two men were handed over to police by their tribe's elders a few days prior to being found dead. They accused police of maintaining a system of extrajudicial executions without due process.

"Such incidents spread fear and sow the seeds of distrust between ordinary people and police," Hamed Ahmed, a member of the Barani, one of Marsa Matrouh's tribes, told The New Arab.

"The people of Marsa Matrouh are generally peaceful, but actions by policemen like this one may cause people to change," he added.

The gap between the versions of the tribes and the Egyptian interior ministry raises uncertainty about what can happen in the coming days and how far the fallout can go. 

Possible roll-back

Relations between the central government in Cairo and tribes in Egypt's border areas have always suffered strains because of what the tribesmen describe as official neglect of their own conditions and the lack of services.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been trying to soothe Egypt's tribes by redressing policies of previous administrations since coming to power in 2014.

In the east in Sinai, the government is implementing a multibillion dollar investment plan that includes the construction of new urban communities, the establishment of industrial plants, and the reclamation of thousands of hectares of desert land, even as some of the same projects were criticised by rights groups for causing the eviction of people, especially near the border with the Gaza Strip.

The same development drive reached westwards to Marsa Matrouh, manifesting itself in numerous infrastructure and development projects, including a nuclear power plant in Al-Dabaa, just 127 kilometres east of Marsa Matrouh, currently being constructed in cooperation with Russia's state energy corporation, Rosatom. When fully operational by 2030, the plant will generate up to 10 percent of Egypt's overall power production and employ hundreds.

The United Arab Emirates is also implementing a multibillion dollar real estate-tourist project in Ras al-Hekma, around 70 kilometres east of Marsa Matrouh. The project is expected to transform Egypt's north-western Mediterranean coast which has started to invite the attention of world celebrities to the same area, including American actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone, who has promoted a major tourist project by the name of SouthMed.

Sisi visited Marsa Matrouh in August 2023 and met its community leaders to discuss the projects his administration implements in the area.

During the meeting, he pledged to solve many of the problems facing the people and the tribes of the province.

There are now concerns the recent unrest can threaten these plans. 

The tribes of Egypt's Western Desert near the border with Libya have been living in their places for hundreds of years now. They share many traits with tribes inside Libya. Some of these tribes are even an extension of the Libyan tribes on the other side of the border.

This used to apply to tribes near the Libyan border, in Sinai and near the border with Sudan in southern Egypt.

Most of the tribesmen in Marsa Matrouh and its desert administrative divisions work as herders, in subsistence farming and in the export and import of livestock.

Official interest in the Egyptian Western Desert from the Mediterranean to the border with Sudan has been growing over the past years against the background of security threats from Libya, ones that intensified after the downfall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime in the neighbouring Arab country in 2011.

The Egyptian government says the security vacuum created in Libya with Gaddafi's downfall turned the border with the neighbouring country into a smuggling hotspot for arms and militants, who ended up in Sinai to fight the Egyptian army and police there.

Observers call, meanwhile, for state authorities to act quickly to contain the anger of the tribes.

"Egypt is a country where there is rule of law," Essa Abu Tamr, a member of the House of Deputies (parliament), told TNA.

"Harmony between the state and the people generates the necessary public support for state projects, including the development projects implemented in the area," he added.

'Real quandary'

Tribal leaders in the province vowed to escalate their anger in the coming period until the policemen involved in the incident are brought to court. They are also requesting a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

"What has happened is dangerous and will not pass easily," Saeed Butamr, one of Marsa Matrouh's chieftains, said at a conference of the tribal leaders and mayors of the province on 12 April.

The mayors of the province, usually appointed by the government, also threatened to submit their resignations in protest.

Meanwhile, tribes in other parts of Egypt declaring support to the people of Marsa Matrouh, with some political forces also adopting the same position.

For it's part, the Revolutionary Socialists' Movement has denounced the killing of the two men.

"Repression and the exploitation of women as a pressure card are new dictatorial tools that necessitate accountability," the movement said in a statement on 13 April.

In comment, a journalist said the Ministry of the Interior finds itself in a "real quandary".

"Police officers are used to summary executions as if they have unconditional approval from the president to do this," journalist Ali Bakri claimed

He referred to the killing in 2016 of what he described as "five poor people" in connection with the 2016 killing of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, a case that strained relations between Cairo and Rome for a long time later.

"Nonetheless, the situation is different this time because the two tribesmen killed by police have people behind them, who will defend their case," he added.