ABSTRACT
According to the authorities, 152 Egyptian policemen were killed while fighting criminals and terrorists during 2014. The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy calculated that, on average, there was almost one attack per day in Egypt. Armed groups were condemned for carrying out attacks on the security forces that killed around 30 civilians — including eight children and seven members of one family — and for abducting at least seven people, some of whom were thought to have been targeted because they were Christians. In this environment, security operations were not only ineffective but even compounded threats to stability by alienating civilians and further radicalising militants. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 140,000 people fled the fighting in Fallujah and Ramadi in January. The mandate of the French- and MINUSMA-led military intervention against Islamist and Tuareg militants in the north was extended by one year, until June 2015.
