On July 1, two days before the second anniversary of the regime change that brought President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to power, Egypt’s military suffered its most significant terrorist attack in the Sinai Peninsula when Islamic State-affiliated (IS) militants overwhelmed numerous security checkpoints around the town of Sheikh Zuweid. According to the government, the operation claimed the lives of 21 soldiers, but some reports estimated the death toll at more than 50.

As photos of the young conscripts who had died circulated in newspapers and on social media, many Egyptians were alarmed at how the military could crumble so tragically. The martyred became the latest of at least 600 security personnel to lose their lives in the government’s war on terrorism.

“They send conscripts to Sinai poorly equipped and barely prepared; the recruits don’t even know how to shoot properly,” said Hassan (pseudonym), a 21-year-old student from a middle-class neighborhood in northern Cairo. “I don’t want to subject myself to this.” Hassan told Al-Monitor that he will do whatever it takes to avoid the “near slavery” of conscription.

Each year, Egypt enlists hundreds of thousands of young men to serve in the military, but critics say they are not trained well and are more often used as a form of cheap labor. Recruits face up to three years of mandatory service and a nominal wage of 250 Egyptian pounds ($35) a month. Some are sent to the front lines in the restive North Sinai, while others are dispatched to police urban areas. The more fortunate can pull strings to find shelter amid the relative safety of the military’s pasta factories and petrol stations. Exemptions are permitted for certain medical conditions or if a family has only one son or breadwinner.