The EconomistNovember 30th 2019 Middle East & Africa 452 including the editor-in-chief, Lina Atallah.
As police raids go in Egypt, this one was
mild. All three were released within hours.
So was Mr Zalat, dropped unceremonious-
ly on the side of a highway. Still, the raid
was a warning—one that reveals much
about the regime’s fears.
Egypt’s public prosecutor claimed that
the website had links to the Muslim Broth-
erhood, a banned Islamist movement. That
was a predictable assertion—the Brother-
hood is blamed for everything in Egypt. It is
also laughable. Mada Masr has a leftist
bent, and many of its journalists sharply
criticised the Brotherhood during its bum-
bling year in power.
It seems more likely that the raid was
triggered by a critical report about Mah-
moud al-Sisi, the eldest son of President
Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s army-backed
dictator. Mahmoud has risen rapidly
through the ranks of the General Intelli-
gence Service (gis), a spy agency that re-
ports directly to the president. According
to Mada Masr, however, Mahmoud will
soon be quietly packed off to Egypt’s em-
bassy in Moscow.
Branches of Egypt’s sprawling security
apparatus have long competed for influ-
ence. Gamal Abdel Nasser, a former presi-
dent, used the gisas a tool to monitor rivals
in the army. The elder Mr Sisi has tried to
pack the agency with loyalists, many
plucked from the military-intelligence ser-
vice where he spent a career in uniform.
That has rankled long-serving officers, as
has Mahmoud’s prominent role.
The son’s performance has not won
many plaudits either, reports Mada Masr.
One of his portfolios, as a sort of media tsar,
seems to have left even his father unim-
pressed: Mr Sisi has criticised Egypt’s press
for being insufficiently supportive. The
last straw seems to have been Mahmoud’s
handling of unexpected protests in Sep-
tember. These were triggered by videos
shot by Muhammad Ali, a businessman
and film star who claimed to know details
of corruption in projects being overseen by
the armed forces.
The protests were small and fizzled out
within a week. They posed no serious
threat. But the regime reacted furiously.
More than 4,000 people were arrested, a
figure that may far exceed the number of
actual protesters. For weeks, police in
downtown Cairo would force passers-by to
unlock their phones so officers could check
their social-media accounts for subversive
content. If anything, the crackdown
brought more attention to the protests.
The regime is trying to crush any other
forms of dissent, too. This month police ar-
rested a Coptic activist, Ramy Kamel, and
charged him with terrorism for his work
documenting attacks on Christians, which
often go unpunished. Economists who
question the official narrative can find
themselves hauled in for a different sort of
questioning. And earlier this month the
government offered a tour of Tora prison,
which is notorious for torture. Inmates, no
doubt free to speak their minds, praised the
quality of the food.
Mahmoud, for his part, is not gone. His
new assignment looks more like a cooling-
off period than a permanent sidelining.
Russia is hardly a backwater. But the moveis a rare concession from a regime loth to
admit failure. The elder Mr Sisi argues that
Egypt needs a stable hand after years of po-
litical chaos. This stability has a Potemkin
quality to it. He is repeating many of the
mistakes of his predecessors, from a focus
on state-led economic growth to a reliance
on favourite sons. And his defences, in the
face of rare but legitimate criticism, are in-
creasingly threadbare. 7T
o the houthirebels,aidworkersare
spies and food is a tool of espionage.
For nearly five years the Houthis have
waged war against the Yemeni govern-
ment, capturing much of the country and
helping to create what the United Na-
tions calls the worst humanitarian crisis
in the world. About half of the popula-
tion relies on food aid. But instead of
helping it reach the needy, the Houthis
are getting in the way. Over the past two
years they have detained dozens of relief
workers. The unaccuses them of block-
ing aid of all kinds to some 5m people.
As the Houthis see it, the unis being
used by their enemies, Saudi Arabia and
the United Arab Emirates, which support
the government. The two countries
donate much of the $4bn that the un
spends each year in Yemen. In return, say
Houthi officials, the body serves as their
eyes and ears in the north. Houthi
preachers accuse the unof withholding
aid for the hungry or sending rotten
food. “If the Saudi-backed coalition
doesn’t kill you, the unwill,” say the
Houthis’ backers on social media.
The unused to blame a Saudi and
Emirati blockade for malnutrition in the
north. Its focus has shifted to the
Houthis, though. The World Food Pro-
gramme (wfp), which manages half of
the un’s budget in Yemen, imports
enough food for 12m people. But the
Houthis’ network of mushrifeen(su-
pervisors) often determines who gets it.
The families of supporters and those
who go to the front are well fed. Some of
the food is diverted to favoured traders,
who sell it. Areas where the Houthis are
unpopular tend to lose out.
In November the Houthis unveiled a
new body to oversee all humanitarian
efforts. It is headed by a security official.
Yemenis working for groups such as the
unmust file reports on their activities.
International aid agencies face pressure
to hire Houthi loyalists, pay “customs
taxes” and cover the rebels’ expenses.Thosethatdonotdosorisklosing their
access or having their staff detained.
Distributing aid is hard enough in
Yemen without Houthi interference. The
wfprelies, in part, on a census from- Earlier this year it wanted to roll
out a biometric system to identify those
most in need, but when the Houthis
realised it would bypass their supervi-
sion they balked. The system is already
used in government-controlled areas.
“Anywhere else, the unSecurity
Council would have gone nuts,” says a un
official in Sana’a, the Houthi-controlled
capital. But the un’s special envoy, Mar-
tin Griffiths, wants to keep the rebels at
the negotiating table as he tries to
achieve peace. Many of those involved
with aid in the north are afraid to speak
out, or are caught up in the Houthis’
schemes. unofficials suspect that a
number of the organisation’s own work-
ers have colluded with combatants on
both sides of the war to get rich from aid.
Some officials worry that if the un
condemns the Houthis too loudly, do-
nors will walk away from aid pro-
grammes or the rebels will pull the plug
on them. It may not seem like it, but
things can actually get worse.
Food fight
YemenThe Houthi rebels wrestle with the UN over food aidSAUDI ARABIAYEMENDJIBOUTIOMANHodeidaHouthi
controlledAdenSaadaSana’aERITREARed
SeaGulf of AdenFood insecurity
Nov 2019-Jan 2020 (forecast)Likely to be one category worse without
current or planned humanitarian aid
Source: USAID, FEWS NETEmergency Crisis Stressed200 km