Escenarios Regionales

Sinai explodes into violence after years of chronic poverty and alienation

Egypt’s Bedouin accused of looting resorts, bombing pipelines and abducting foreigners in post-Mubarak security vacuum

Ahmed Abdo was still asleep in his hut at the gate of the Aqua-Sun beach resort on Egypt’s Red Sea coast when 20 masked men carrying guns burst in.

Abdo, 30, and his two colleagues were tied up, their mobile phones taken. The intruders, members of the Bedouin Tarabeen tribe, demanded money – 4m Egyptian pounds (£420,000) – from the owner in compensation for the land on which the resort was built. It belonged, they said, to the Tarabeen.

When the owner demurred, “they took everything – air conditioners, generators, televisions, gas canisters, even the doors,” said Abdo. He showed the Guardian around the deserted and ransacked resort: doors kicked in or missing, mattresses taken from bed frames, windows smashed, cushions and rugs seized. The office had been stripped of equipment and furniture; room occupancy charts and leaflets were strewn across the floor. Ten fridges and a huge freezer had gone. Air conditioning units were torn from walls. They even tried to take the pool table, but dropped it mid-heist, leaving it lopsided on buckled legs. The value of goods taken is estimated at more than £100,000.

Pictured: Egyptian Bedouin stand next to leaping flames after an attack on the Sinai terminal of a gas pipeline. Many Bedouin say they feel they have more freedom and power since last year’s revolution. Photograph: AP