On March 6, 2016, terrorist group Ansar Bait al-Maqdis targeted an ambulance and shot dead its driver Rida Shahat. The ambulance was on its way to South Sheikh Zuweid (North Sinai) to rescue police personnel, which Ansar Bait al-Maqdis targeted by car bomb. 

On the same day, the aforementioned group sent a statement to Sinai’s ambulance drivers and workers, threatening them that they would be targeted if they rescued injured police and army forces.

On March 6, 2016, terrorist group Ansar Bait al-Maqdis targeted an ambulance and shot dead its driver Rida Shahat. The ambulance was on its way to South Sheikh Zuweid (North Sinai) to rescue police personnel, which Ansar Bait al-Maqdis targeted by car bomb. 

On the same day, the aforementioned group sent a statement to Sinai’s ambulance drivers and workers, threatening them that they would be targeted if they rescued injured police and army forces.

The Egyptian Ambulance Organization (EAO) in North Sinai Governorate has 350 ambulance drivers and workers and 120 administrative staff members, supervisors and providers of other services.

Ambulance workers are under fire

Mohamed Faraj, a 30-year-old ambulance worker at the EAO in North Sinai, wears a dark olive uniform, on which “Ambulance” is inscribed in bold letters. Faraj leans on the orange ambulance awaiting the signal to rescue newly injured police, army personnel a civilian or possibly even one of his colleagues.

Faraj says the workers at the EAO suffer greatly while performing their job especially since there have been many attacks on ambulance workers and drivers, leaving many injured or killed.

He adds that it is well-known that the movement of ambulances in the areas of Rafah, Sheikh Zuweid and Arish is very difficult especially since ambulances are neither bullet-proof nor armored and they do not have any security to protect their workers who rescue injured police, the army and the civilians.

Faraj gave an example: If there were an accident in one of Sheikh Zuweid’s villages, an ambulance from Arish, which is 30 km away, would need about an hour to arrive at the accident’s location. It would have to pass through many checkpoints and coordinate with the security forces to allow it to continue and the ambulance could still be threatened by terrorists at any moment on the road.

Work continues

Still, says Faraj, his work has not stopped even since the death of his colleague, Rida Shahat. “We staged many sit-ins to convey our message to the officials to “save” us from terrorism, which targets us because we are rescuing the injured police personnel. Our demands, which were communicated to the EAO’s head and the minister of health, included life insurance policies,” he added.

Insurance demands

The ambulance workers’ demands included safe tracks for ambulances, allowing transferring them to other governorates to alleviate their psychological pressures, providing them with life insurance policies and treating them as martyrs in the event of their deaths to receive the allotted financial and moral honors. They also demanded that the injured ambulance workers are treated on the expense of the state and are sent abroad when necessary.

Insurance companies refused to provide the ambulance workers with life insurance policies on the pretext that their profession is dangerous and their death is very likely at any moment and thus their occupation is labeled as extremely dangerous.

“We spoke to many insurance companies,” said Faraj.  “Some of them rejected the idea altogether, saying that our work is very dangerous and others agreed but imposed certain conditions which, we believe, are unfair and would not give us our rights. Therefore, we postposed this step until we receive the prime ministry’s response,” he said. 

Ahmed Mahmud, an ambulance worker in North Sinai, concurs with Faraj, saying: “We do our jobs in terror while we transport the injured from Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah where ambulances are systematically targeted by terrorist groups.”

Unfortunately, Mahmud says that “We have not received a response yet on all of our demands,” stressing that the maximum compensation the family of an ambulance worker gets in case of his death is L.E. 20,000 (US $2,250) plus paying for the burial’s expenses.

He says that the international laws governing the work of the ambulance crews provide for their personal safety and working in safe places away from any armed clashes. “We, here, have humanitarian considerations and do not fear for our personal safety since what is more important for us is to reach the injured in time. We are all proud to be ambulance workers.”

Demands are being studied

Dr. Mahmud Amer, Director of the Ambulance Facility in North Sinai, says the governorate has about 92 ambulances providing services for patients, administrative services and assistance services, stressing that recently the area was targeted by many explosions and that terrorists targeted many ambulances in these areas.   

He says that one team, consisting of an ambulance worker and driver, works for 15 consecutive days and then its service location changes. In the major accidents, ambulances move based on their proximity to the accident locations. He said that the ambulance workers’ demands are being studied by officials to find out how they will be met.

“One of the problems I and the other ambulance workers face is the people’s ignorance about the ambulance work that they sometimes attack the ambulances and their crews. The officials should meet our demands and solve our crisis,” he said.