| Types | voluntary association  |
|---|---|
| Established | 29 December 2019 (2 years ago) |
| Founders | Ayman Nour |
| Country | Egypt |
| Aim | regime change |
The Egyptian National Action Group or ENAG is a group of expatriate Egyptians created in December 2019 with the aim of overthrowing what is described by the group as military rule in Egypt. [1]
In December 2019, a group of expatriate Egyptians, including Ayman Nour, a candidate in the 2005 Egyptian presidential election who was held under arrest during six weeks prior to the election, [2] and for four years following the election, [3] announced the creation of the Egyptian National Action Group. [1]
ENAG's stated aim is to overthrow what is described by the group as military rule in Egypt. The group claimed to have reached "consensus on a number of principles and priorities". [1] Ayman Nour described the "values that unite" ENAG as "democracy, human dignity, justice, equality and freedom". [4] ENAG criticised the Egyptian government, led by president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for repression of dissidents, and for "neglect[ing] the homeland's wealth and capabilities, humiliat[ing] and suppress[ing] citizens and endanger[ing] Egypt's national security". [1] In January 2020, Nour judged Sisi's government to be "weak and frightened". [4]
In January 2020, Nour claimed that ENAG had "developed a consensus document ... setting out [ENAG's] common vision of the post-dictatorship era, including a transition period" and was designing a "comprehensive and collaborative national project ... to address the most urgent questions around the economy, restructuring of state institutions and limiting of the army's role." [4] Middle East Observer described ENAG's aims in the context of a 28 December 2019 "Egyptian Consensus Document" announced by Mohamed Ali. [5]
Ayman Nour presented himself as ENAG's spokesperson. He described the group's composition as including people from "diverse political backgrounds" who "set [their] differences aside" in order to create the group. He claimed that the nature of the group was "unprecedented". Nour suggested that the group includes "centrists, liberals, leftists [and] Islamists". [4]
On 2 January 2020, ENAG criticised Egyptian military involvement in the 2019–2020 Western Libya offensive of the Second Libyan Civil War. ENAG viewed the Egyptian participation as being "in favour of a rogue putschist group that has moved in violation of legitimacy, fighting against the legitimate government that has been produced by the Skhirat Agreement, sponsored by the United Nations and recognised by the whole world, including Egypt." [6]
On 13 January 2020, the day when Moustafa Kassem, a United States citizen imprisoned in Egypt died after a hunger strike, ENAG stated that 300 detainees in the maximum security wing of Tora Prison had been on hunger strike since 5 January, when a prisoner had died as a result of inadequate medical care. [7]
Ayman Abd El Aziz Nour is an Egyptian politician, a former member of the Egyptian Parliament, founder and chairman of the El Ghad party. Nour unsuccessfully ran against Hosni Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election. He was arrested in 2005 prior to the election and freed six weeks later, and again after the election. He was released from his second imprisonment on 18 February 2009. Nour left Egypt following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état. In 2014, he spent time in Lebanon for treatment of a wound he sustained while in prison, and expressed his hope for returning to Egypt.
The Egyptian presidential election of 2005, held on September 7, 2005, was the first allegedly contested presidential election in Egypt's history. Hosni Mubarak, the former President of Egypt, won a fifth consecutive six-year term in office, with official results showing he won 88.6% of the vote. Mubarak's opponent, Ayman Nour, of the Tomorrow Party, is estimated to have received 7.3% of the vote and Numan Gumaa received 2.8%, however, Nour claimed that prior polling results showed over 30%. Criticism of the election process has centred on the process of selecting the eligible candidates, and on alleged election-law violations during voting. Mubarak was sworn in for his new term on September 27.
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The Arab Winter is a term for the resurgence of authoritarianism, and Islamic extremism evolving in the aftermath of the Arab Spring protests in Arab countries. The term "Arab Winter" refers to the events across Arab League countries in the Mid-East and North Africa, including the Syrian Civil War, the Iraqi insurgency and the following civil war, the Egyptian Crisis, the Libyan Crisis and the Crisis in Yemen. Events referred to as the Arab Winter include those in Egypt that led to the removal of Mohamed Morsi and the seizure of power by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in an anti-Muslim Brotherhood campaign.
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Ayman Sayed Ahmed Aly was the vice chairman and general secretary of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), the umbrella group of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. He was an advisor of the ousted president Muhammad Morsi, specializing in the affairs of Egyptian Expatriates. He was a senior member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau, an official representative of Mohammed Mursi and advisor for Egyptian expatriates.
The Government of National Accord is an interim government for Libya that was formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement, a United Nations–led initiative, signed on 17 December 2015. The agreement was unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, which welcomed the formation of a Presidency Council for Libya and recognized the Government of National Accord as the sole legitimate executive authority in Libya. On 31 December 2015, Chairman of the Libyan House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh Issa declared his support for the Libyan Political Agreement. During 2015–2017, the General National Congress criticized the unity government on multiple fronts as biased in favor of its rivals, the House of Representatives.
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