We've seen plenty of news coverage on Egypt's human rights violations. But there's a lot missing from the story — mainly, people who have gone missing. And there are a lot.
A group published a report on Facebook that said it had confirmed at least 163 cases of "forced disappearances" in the country since April alone. They include abductions, people forced to hide and secret incarcerations. The report was released earlier this month by Freedom for the Brave, a social justice organization advocating for prisoners' rights in Egypt.
The cases occurred in 22 different prefectures, said the monitor, which tries to verify the reports with family members. The majority are still missing, and at least two have been killed. The government is believed to be responsible for these disappearances. Here's the breakdown of the 163 people gone missing:
- 66 cases of “continuous forced disappearances,” confirmed by family members to be ongoing cases of people still missing
- 31 cases of “forced disappearances without follow-up,” cases of missing people whose current status is not confirmed by family members
- 64 cases of “finished forced disappearances,” cases of missing people who were incarcerated without reason and appeared after 24 hours.
- two cases of death
