CAIRO: Unrest in the north Sinai town of Al-Arish continued for the second day in a row after an innocuous dispute led to clashes between Bedouins and residents.
On Sunday, local residents in Al-Arish gathered in major squares to protest that security forces were not doing enough to protect them from Bedouin tribes, according to Tagammu party representative in North Sinai Alaa Al-Kashef.
“There is a general strike in Al-Arish and all the shops are closed, security forces have surrounded the squares and people are throwing stones at them he told Daily News Egypt.
Security forces descended en masse on Al-Arish after clashes between Bedouins and town residents on Saturday which escalated into a shooting spree and then a mass demonstration where tires were burnt and roads blocked.
At least six people were injured in total, three from the shootings and another three in the clashes, including two policemen, according to press reports.
According to sources in North Sinai the spark that set off the latest round of unrest was a dispute between members of the Bedouin Tarabeen tribe and the Fawakhriya, a clan from Al-Arish.
Tribal elder and spokesman for the Bedouin Sheikh Mussa Al-Dilh told Daily News Egypt that the incident that caused all this was trivially over a phone card. Al-Dilh recounted that a man from an unrelated clan in Al-Arish was buying a call card for his mobile phone and disagreed with the shop-owner, who was from the Fawakhriya.
At that point two people from the Tarabeen tribe intervened and a fight broke out, with the Tarabeen members receiving a beating. So they returned with other members of the Tarabeen tribe and opened fire in the Fawakhriya square. At that point the matter escalated.
Al-Dilh was at pains to point out that the Tarabeen members acted without permission of their tribal elders and attributed their actions to the rashness of their hot-blooded youth.
Al-Kashef picked up the story, telling Daily News Egypt that at the same time the Tarabeen members opened fore, there was a funeral procession for one of the Fawakhriya elders. Three people were injured including an 8-year-old child.
The Fawakhriya responded and from 7-12 pm on Saturday night, there was “chaos in the streets as thousands of angry Al-Arish residents felt that security forces had not protected them from the Tarabeen attack, with an attempted assault an Al-Arish police precinct an indication of their anger.
Police then fired tear gas to disperse the crowds and reinforcements were sent to contain the situation, according to an AP report.
The report added that tensions between Sinai Bedouins and townspeople is not a new occurrence, as the Bedouins feel shortchanged by being left out of the tourism boom in the governorate and complain of mistreatment at the hands of security forces.
Al-Dilha said, “I urge the people here [in North Sinai] not to generalize. If one member of the tribe makes a mistake you do not punish the whole tribe.
The Bedouin elder also sounded a warning against the heavy-handed tactics of security forces as well as the mistrust of city dwellers.
“The [tribal] elders are now still in control and they are reasonable and wise, but the younger ones are quicker to react so if [government] reactions remain extreme then we don’t know what might happen, he said.
