Egyptian Doctor pleas to UN for support
Working on behalf of the United Nations Support Mission in Somalia Egyptian doctor Mohamed Hariza remains captive in Somalia by Al-Shabaab militants, appealing to both the Egyptian government and the United Nations for help.
United Nations, New York
Sphinx News: United Nations
An Egyptian doctor serving for the United Nations Support Mission in Somalia, Mohammed Hariza was captured last year by Al Shabab militants.
Contending that he was doing nothing wrong, simply serving his UN mandate sanctioned under international law, Hariza has repeatedly appealed to both the United Nations and the Arab Republic of Egypt for assistance, citing their failure to rescue both him and his team as an international failure.
In a video directed to both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, as well as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Hariza called the international response a “failure,” suggesting that the inability to adequately negotiate, rescue, or raise awareness on the matter characterizes itself as “abandonment.”
Speaking from “a dark cell, held captive by Al-Shabab,” Hariza and his team have been imprisoned for over a year and a half, captured by Al Shabab when the team’s helicopter crashed during a medical evacuation.
Until now, Hariza and his team face “an unknown fate,” stuck in unfamiliar terrain and held under dire conditions. “Waiting for someone to save us,” Hariza expressed unequivocal sorrow over his and his team’s prolonged incarceration, particularly dismayed by “ignored appeals” from both the United Nations and the Arab Republic of Egypt.
In his remarks to Secretary-General António Guterres, Hariza deplores the lack of “negotiators or anyone to demand their freedom,” suggesting that the organization’s lackadaisical attempts rendered those in confinement “forgotten, forced to bleed” for an organization that was futile to them “when it mattered most.”
Hariza further posits that it is the United Nations’ responsibility to “free its staff captured in humanitarian missions.”
With regards to Hariza’s comments addressed directly to President el-Sisi, he urges the Egyptian head of state to “generously intervene,” using his “international influence to guarantee their release.”
On the matter, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, told Sphinx News TV that the United Nations “has raised and will raise issues of these detained personnel, hoping that progress can be made on their release.”
The topic is particularly relevant to the Secretary-General’s current international travel, as he is now in Nairobi, Kenya, attending the Africa Forward Summit. According to Haq, while in Kenya Secretary-General Guterres met with el-Sisi, discussing “the situation in Sudan, Libya and the Middle East,” and expressing “appreciation for Egypt’s constructive diplomatic engagement to resolve regional issues.”
When asked about the lack of conversation between Guterres and President el-Sisi in relation to Hariza’s capture, Haq told Sphinx, “not everything that’s included in our readouts are necessarily all the topics involved in a conversation. Some diplomacy requires a little bit more tact than that.”
Haq’s comments insinuate potentially undisclosed diplomatic dialogue between both officials on Hariza’s detention; however, the group’s lengthy detainment suggests that such conversations have not yet yielded positive outcomes.
