According to the media Disclose, Egypt hijacks anti-terrorist intelligence provided by France

Egyptian F-16 fighter (illustration).

The information provided by the French to the Egyptian forces allows strikes on vehicles, without verification of the threat.

AFP PHOTO / HO / EGYPTIAN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE AFP PHOTO

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

France provides military intelligence to Egypt in the name of counterterrorism, but Cairo has used it to track down and kill suspected traffickers.

Embarrassing revelations from the investigative media Disclose, especially since this news site publishes quite explicit documents from the French Military Intelligence Directorate (DRM).

Advertising

Read more

In these documents obtained by

Disclose

, we discover the existence of the Sirli mission which began in 2016. In this French intelligence mission in support of Egypt, a light aircraft of the French army monitors the western border of the country .

This is to fight against possible infiltration of jihadists from neighboring Libya.

Strikes on civilians

But quickly, French military intelligence discovered that the information they transmitted to Egyptian forces allowed strikes on vehicles, and that without verification of the threat.

At least 19 Egyptian bombings of this type took place.

They are said to have mainly targeted

pick-ups

used for border smuggling causing the death of an unknown number of civilians.

The political level alerted

The DRM documents published by Disclose show that the French military alerted the political level to this diversion of military aid: the Elysee by a note at the end of 2017 and, in 2019, the Ministry of the Armed Forces was warned of "

 cases evidence of destruction of objectives detected by the French aircraft

 ”in a note asking the Egyptian partner to be reminded that the aircraft is not a targeting tool.

According to Disclose, ten French soldiers are still deployed in Egypt as part of this mission.

►

See also: Cyber-surveillance in Libya and Egypt: French business leaders indicted

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Egypt

  • France

  • Defense

  • Terrorism

  • Diplomacy