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Locked Out: How Bedouins in Egypt’s Sinai Are Coping With COVID-19 Crisis

May 23, 2020
Bedouin on Mount Sinai. Credit: Sinai Trail

At 7 AM every morning, based in the coastal town of Nuweiba, Seham ElSaeed and her family climb the mountains to feed their herds of goats. The air is clean, the skies are clear, and there is no more work, schools, or tourism: their only income comes from their natural environment. As cities around the world are in lockdown due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, certain communities, like the Bedouin in Egypt’s Sinai, are locked out from the world. On the top of the mountains, there is no curfew to pin them down – no lockdown or stable internet connection to keep them constantly hung up or bothered by updated news on the novel virus. Before the first case that was confirmed in April, North Sinai was Egypt’s only governorate with no COVID-19 cases. Globally, bigger cities have been the epicentre of the virus, yet this does not mean that rural communities are completely immune from it. In fact, experts warn that these communities might suffer even more in the long term, as not only are resources for the sick are fewer, but also because these communities tend to be…


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