Rights groups urge US to withhold $320m in military aid to Egypt

Nearly two dozen rights groups on Friday issued a letter to the Joe Biden administration urging Washington to withhold $320m in military aid to Egypt, saying that Cairo has failed to meet human rights benchmarks set by the US.

The letter, addressed to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House National security advisor Jake Sullivan, urged the administration to withhold the full $320m in foreign military financing (FMF), instead of the partial amount that Washington withheld in previous years.

"At this pivotal moment, we urge the administration to use the tools provided by Congress to withhold the full amount of conditioned FMF, as respect for human rights is inextricably linked to US national security interests in Egypt and around the world," stated the letter, signed by groups including the Project on Middle East Democracy, Democracy for the Arab World Now, and the Freedom Initiative, among others.

"Withholding the full amount conditioned on human rights will demonstrate the continued importance that the United States places on the Egyptian government adequately addressing the dire human rights crisis and that, to date, it has not done nearly enough."

A similar letter was also sent on Friday by 11 US senators calling for withholding the FMF aid to Egypt. That letter, spearheaded by Senator Chris Murphy, said that "over the last year, Egypt’s human rights record has continued to deteriorate, despite the Egyptian government’s claims to the contrary".

In September 2021, the US withheld $130m in FMF military assistance to Egypt. The Biden administration said it would only release the funds if the government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi delivered on a set of human rights demands.

Those conditions included ending the detention of several Egyptians politically targeted by Cairo, and ending Case 173 of 2011, a politically motivated case in which 43 foreign and domestic NGO employees were sent to prison and a number of civil society groups, including Freedom House, were shut down.

"The Egyptian government’s actions in recent months demonstrate that it has not halted its repression campaign or delivered on commitments to meaningfully improve the human rights situation," the letter said.

Continued crackdown

The $320m that the rights groups are calling to be withheld is just a quarter of the $1.3bn in annual US military aid to Egypt.

Cairo is the second-largest recipient of US military aid, trailing behind Israel. And despite the calls to curtail a portion of US military aid to Egypt, Washington has continued to reward Cairo with arms sales.

In January 2022, the US approved an arms sale to Egypt valued at about $2.5bn.

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Since coming to power in the wake of a 2013 coup, Sisi has led a brutal suppression of dissent, jailing more than 60,000 activists and imposing strict censorship measures on public discourse.

Hundreds of prisoners have also died in detention due to poor conditions and medical neglect, according to human rights activists.

Sisi has consistently denied there are political prisoners in Egypt and has instead framed the crackdown as part of a fight against terrorism.

In recent years, the Egyptian government has made efforts to reduce its prison population. In 2022, for example, Cairo released 895 political prisoners, according to Amnesty International. 

However, rights experts previously told MEE that the apparent attempts to ease the crackdown on civil society have come at the same time that the Sisi government has conducted further arrests and the targeting of critics.