AL-ARISH: Hundreds of Sinai Bedouins protested on Wednesday against the detention of one of their tribesmen, burning tires and blocking roads on the peninsula, a security official said.
“Hundreds of Bedouins from north Sinai have blocked roads in the Mahdia area near the Israeli border to protest against the detention of one Bedouin, the official told AFP, adding that they were setting tires ablaze.
The man, Mahmoud Hassan Al-Menei, 40, was held on Tuesday without charge.
A Bedouin source told AFP that police routinely carried out arrests in north Sinai and that Bedouins felt under threat of having their car licenses confiscated or homes searched at any time.
A spate of bombings that hit popular tourist destinations in Sinai between 2004 and 2006 lead to massive sweeps of the peninsula with thousands of Bedouins arrested.
The Egyptian government has regularly promised to pump money into the impoverished north Sinai and there have been several attempts in recent months at a rapprochement between authorities and the Bedouins. -AFP
