Activists take Egypt to AU rights body over Rafah crossing

A group of NGOs and individuals have lodged a complaint with the African Union's human rights body against Egypt's closure of the Rafah border crossing with the embattled Gaza Strip, the target of a recent devastating Israeli military offensive.

"We are seeking expeditious means of getting parties talking about access of immediate relief to the defenseless people of the Gaza Strip," New-York based lawyer and activist Stanley Cohen, who represents Egyptian-American writer Mona Eltahawy as a plaintiff, told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

The plaintiffs, including the UK-based International Coalition for Freedoms and Rights and Organization for Human Rights as well as the South Africa-based Palestine Solidarity Alliance, submitted their complaint Wednesday to the Gambia-based African Union's Commission on Human and People's Rights.

They accuse Egypt of "creating, contributing to or intentionally compounding an enormous humanitarian crisis" in the embattled coastal enclave – home to some 1.8 million Palestinians.