Two international NGOs have asked French prosecutors and the UN to investigate the French state’s involvement in Egypt allegedly committing crimes against humanity in a secret military operation on the Egyptian-Libyan border.
A 2021 leak appeared to show how French officers complained they were being asked to facilitate Egyptian airstrikes, codenamed Operation Sirli, on the Egyptian-Libyan border, even though the original counter-terrorism purpose had been subverted by the Egyptian military into taking out vehicles containing nothing more than contraband. Dozens are estimated to have been killed or injured. The story was first revealed by the French investigative site Disclose.
The complaint was filed to the French national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office, on behalf of the US-based NGOs Egyptians Abroad for Democracy and Codepink, on Monday, the UK-based barrister Haydee Dijkstal told the Guardian.
The NGOs want the French judiciary to investigate French officials’ complicity in committing crimes against civilians by providing assistance to the Egyptian authorities through information, aerial surveillance and intelligence, and then not ending the assistance once it became clear Egypt was not using the information for counter-terrorism purposes, but instead to bomb alleged traffickers in drugs and contraband.
The complaint claims “the targeted attacks that resulted in the systematic killing and wounding of civilians suspected of smuggling and unrelated to terrorism in (the Egyptian Western desert), constitute crimes against humanity”.
The NGOs also referred the matter to three UN special rapporteurs to “take steps to obtain additional information on the targeted attacks, including through a visit to Egypt”.
Operation Sirli was a now confirmed but then secret intelligence mission launched by France in February 2016 to secure Egypt’s porous 745-mile (1,200km) border with Libya and prevent any eventual terrorist threat. The initial deal, which was important to French efforts to cement relations with its security partner Egypt, was signed by the then French defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, but was known to successive French presidents.
According to confidential defence documents the French military intelligence directorate (DRM) leaked in 2021, the Egyptian forces changed the original mission so that hundreds of vehicles were targeted by airstrikes causing countless deaths and injuries. The initial disclosure of the documents led to a French government inquiry, but the internal investigation turned into an examination of the source of the leak, and not what the leak disclosed. An attempt by leftwing deputies inside the national assembly to launch an inquiry by politicians foundered.
The documents show French soldiers sent to Egypt between 2016 and 2019 alerted their superiors on four different occasions in military intelligence to the concern about the airstrikes against civilians accused of drug smuggling. One of the leaked emails said the French unit “remains very vigilant but nevertheless worried about the use made of [information] for [targeting] purposes”. Another email said the vehicles were linked with “simple Bedouin smuggling”. The strikes on hundreds of vehicles were carried out by Egyptian F-16s.
The French defence ministry has defended the Sirli mission and clarified that it was “subject to a clear framework and strict preventive measures”.
Le Drian acknowledged the security cooperation with the Egyptian authorities, while affirming that “the data exchange process is constructed in such a way that it cannot be used to guide strikes”.
The complaint to the French prosecutor is intended to secure a reference for a magistrate to investigate the case, so ending what the NGOs describe as the impunity of those as yet unidentified but responsible in the French government over what amounts to a crime of torture.
The reference to the three special UN rapporteurs operating in this field claims Egypt mounted attacks on individuals unrelated to terrorism, so violating their human rights, and requiring an investigation by the UN human rights council.
Dijikstal said the location data collected by the French led to hundreds of people being killed and injured without any recourse to trial, and more recently their families had been deprived of any justice. “In the name of terrorism, ordinary people … were targeted.”
