Egyptian Civil War

The **Egyptian Civil War** led to the defeat of the secular government in Egypt and the formation of the Cairo Caliphate which would later become the North African Caliphate. The capital of both the Cairo Caliphate and the NAC was Cairo.

## Background

On 28 January 2020, Egyptian President Abdul al-Sisi was assassinated by the reformed Islamic State group. On the same day, IS proclaimed the Caliphate of Cairo, under the leadership of Umar Abdullah al-Moghaddam, a veteran of the war in Syria and Iraq. The Egyptian Presidency was left vacant for several days as a power vacuum began in Egypt. At the same time, Mohammed Morsi, who escaped from an Egyptian prison in 2019, proclaimed the support of the Muslim Brotherhood for the Caliphate, and began to organise forces in the Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptian Prime Minister, Ibrahim Mahlab, was proclaimed President by the military in order to fill the power vacuum.

## Progress of the War

### Beginning of the War

Israeli Prime Minister Silvan Shalom asked the Knesset to launch an intervention in Egypt, in support of the Mahlab government, but was denied. IS forces began to seize control of Upper Egypt, while Muslim Brotherhood forces in the Sinai began to prepare to cross the Suez Canal. British Prime Minister Ed Miliband announced an arms embargo and a military blockade on the Sinai, while new US President Elizabeth Warren deployed advisors and other units to Egypt to support Mahlab’s government as Egypt officially descended into civil war. Russia and the United Islamic Republic offered support to the rebel factions in order to remove a vital American ally.

### Escalation

Despite international support, Mahlab lost control of the Suez Canal on 28 February and Muslim Brotherhood consolidated their control over Sinai. On 16 March, Miliband requested to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for NATO forces to invade Egypt as IS-Muslim Brotherhood forces captured more of Egypt.

     On 19 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement with the Egyptian rebels, providing them with $1 billion worth of weapons. On March 24, U.S. President Elizabeth Warren arrived in Moscow to meet with Putin. They eventually reached a non-intervention agreement in which neither side would support anyone in the conflict. However, this agreement did not stick.

On 25 March, Luxor fell to IS troops after 19 days of fierce fighting. In response the Egyptian Air Force bombarded rebel positions across Egypt and Libya. By 4 April, Hamas fighters crossed the border into the Sinai to reinforce the troops led by Morsi. The following day Morsi reiterated the support of the Muslim Brotherhood for the Cairo Caliphate promising his party and its constituents would carry out the commands of the Caliph in managing the affairs of government in accordance with Islamic tradition and Sharia law. Morsi also announced recognition of Islamic State fighting units as "the Right Hand of God" or shock troops of the Caliph above the command structure of the Egyptian Army and answerable to the Caliph alone.

In April, pro-Caliphate protests in Cairo spread to Alexandria and Giza, threatening the control of the government along the Nile Delta. On 21 April, the last of the government forces on the east side of the Suez surrendered to Brotherhood and Hamas forces. The following day, Saudi Arabia deployed 10,000 troops to Egypt in support of the government. In late April, IS decided that rather than to launch an offensive to take Lower Egypt, it would start to reduce the flow of water in the Nile River that fed the Delta.

In May, Algeria and Turkey called for a ceasefire in Egypt, while Algeria offered to mediate the ceasefire agreement. During this time, Egyptian forces planned to launch an offensive to retake Upper Egypt from IS. On 29 May, Egyptian and rebel delegates met in Algiers, in a secret closed door meeting. On 9 June, the government surrendered and the Caliphate moved its capital to Cairo, while the government of Ibrahim Mahleb fled to Saudi Arabia. Under the agreement, the Egyptian Army and Muslim Brotherhood forces reconstituted and formed a new unified military force, with the Islamic State being the personal guard under the control of the Caliph.

## Aftermath

With the end of the war, Egypt went from a secularist quasi-democratic nation to a fundamentalist Islamist autocratic semi-republic with the Caliph and the Head of State and Morsi as President - the Head of Government. In 2021, Hamas in the Gaza Strip would declare independence from the Palestinian Authority and request annexation by the Caliphate as an autonomous Emirate. Egypt then became known as the Caliphate, the Cairo Caliphate, the Caliphate of Egypt but most commonly the North African Caliphate - or simply the NAC - after the annexation of Sudan.