Introduction
Egypt is one of the world’s most repressive regimes. Since 2013, when the then-head of Egypt’s military Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seized power in a coup d’etat, and suspended the constitution, President Sisi has effectively ruled the country as a dictator. Egyptian security forces killed at least 1,300 people during anti-government protests in summer 2013, shortly after the coup.
Over ten years on, with President Sisi still in power, hundreds of people have disappeared, having been either killed or imprisoned by the police or army, and tens of thousands of people have been put in prison. Egypt’s government continues its “wholesale repression” of political protest, “systematically detaining and punishing peaceful critics and activists and effectively criminalizing peaceful dissent,” according to Human Rights Watch. Journalists, human rights defenders, protesters, government critics, opposition parties, and minorities including LGBT+ people have all been targeted by the government. Women consistently face sexual violence and discrimination, with few protections in the law.
Over 4,000 people were detained after protests in September 2019. In 2020, Egyptian authorities cited coronavirus pandemic restrictions to justify further arrests and repression, including automatic renewal of pretrial detention. President Sisi was elected to a third six-year term in 2023, following a campaign period marred by harassment, detention and prosecution of journalists and political and human rights activists.
Security officers routinely commit serious human rights violations, including disappearances and extra-judicial executions, in near-absolute impunity. By 2017, torture had reached “epidemic” levels, according to Human Rights Watch. In 2024, authorities released 934 prisoners held for political reasons but arrested another 1,594, according to Amnesty International. Even prisoners who have completed their sentences, such as UK citizen and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, have been detained well beyond their release date. (Alaa was finally released in September 2025.)
While officially denouncing such abuses, Egypt’s western allies – notably the UK and the US – have long tolerated them so as to keep the Egyptian government as an counterterrorism ally, and in recognition of Egypt’s role in curbing migration towards Europe.
Since Israel’s war on Gaza entered a new phase in October 2023 following Hamas’ campaign, Egypt has played a significant role in mediation efforts between Hamas and the Israeli government and the Egyptian government’s decision to allow, or not, aid into southern Gaza via the Rafah border crossing has had practical consequences for trapped Palestinians. Discussions over Egypt’s role in “securing” Gaza following a ceasefire announced in October 2025, two years on, may lead to an increase in defence spending and military aid to the country.
Egypt’s arms suppliers
Egypt was the world’s fourth largest arms importer between 2015 and 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Its main suppliers in that period were the France (30%), Russia (26%), Germany (16%) and the US (12%).
Egypt was the French arms industry’s top client, according to a French parliament report; one notable contract was Egypt’s 2021 purchase of 30 Dassault Rafale fighter jets. Recent Russian sales in the country have included Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets (2015) and Kamov Ka-52 “Crocodile” helicopters (2017). Just under half of all 2021 German arms exports went to Egypt.
In 2025, the US State Department approved potential sales of arms worth more than US$ 5 billion to Egypt. CS gas canisters made by US company Combined Systems were allegedly used by Egyptian security services during the 2011 uprisings. US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin provided the Egyptian air force with C-130J-30 tactical airlifters in 2024, and it acquired Boeing Apaches and Chinook helicopters in the mid 2010’s. US company Lockheed Martin has previously supplied the Egyptian Air Force with jets and the C-130H helicopter. General Dynamics has previously regularly supplied tanks to the Egyptian army.
The UK and Egypt
Though the UK is not one of Egypt’s top arms suppliers, Egypt is a significant military and diplomatic ally of the UK, despite government repression. In late 2020, the then-head of MI6 met with President Sisi to discuss “intelligence cooperation.” Senior officials from MI5 and MI6 train Egyptian spies every year in the UK, Declassified reports. In 2020, the Royal Navy and Egyptian Navy completed their first joint amphibious exercises, in the Mediterranean.
As a “key regional security partner”, per the 2025 Strategic Defence Review, Egypt benefits from overseas direct assistance administered through various UK government branches, as well as military assistance. The UK’s overseas development aid to Egypt includes a £400 million British International Investment portfolio, and the UK has 66 active aid projects in Egypt as of 2025. Five of these are administered through the FCDO. One of these the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), of which £1.4 billion has been spent since 2017; the CSSF has come under fire for financing repressive units of the Egyptian police and its notoriously unjust justice system. A UK parliamentary committee found that the CSSF was essentially “a ‘slush fund’ for projects” which “do not meet the needs of UK national security.” The UK also guarantees loans provided to the Egyptian government by the African Development Bank.
Since massacres that killed huge numbers of people during a military takeover of government in 2013, EU countries agreed to suspend and review licences for “any equipment which might be used for internal repression.” The UK government paused 49 of its agreements to supply Egypt with arms, resuming half of them two months later.
However, the UK has sold Egypt a wide range of arms that could have been used in the suppression of its citizens over the past two decades. The UK government arms sales department, Defence & Security Exports, has identified Egypt as a “key market,” despite its human rights record. In 2015, analysis of export figures by CAAT revealed that arms sales to Egypt had drastically increased. The largest recent licence, worth £79 million, was issued in December 2012, for military radars. The UK has also issued £28m in licences for “targeting equipment” in 2022 and 2024, and authorised the transfer of 165 machine guns in 2022.
UK Prime Ministers, Foreign Secretaries and Trade Ministers have spoken to and hosted many meetings with the Egyptian government. The UK’s prime ministers have met or talked to Sisi dozens of times since he took power, and at least six times in 2025. The first of Sisi’s presidential visits to the UK took place in November 2015.
Among the most troubling UK arms exports to Egypt were tear gas canisters found at the site of anti-government protests in 2011, which had been manufactured by UK company PW Defence, previously a division of Chemring. UK-based Gamma Group attempted to sell its ‘FinSpy’ surveillance malware technology to Egypt before the revolution; documentation from the company was found when protestors raided an abandoned Egyptian state security building during the 2011 uprising.
