Egypt blackouts become symbol of malaise a decade after Sisi’s rise
Cairo, EgyptReuters For Egyptians grown used to a decade of reliable power supplies and boasts of vast investments in generation, a wave of rolling blackouts came as a shock – shaking faith in President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s record months before an election. Along with record inflation and a sharp weakening of the currency, the outages […]
Bulldozers tear into Cairo’s historic Islamic cemeteries
Cairo, EgyptReuters A project to expand roads and bridges to ease congestion in Cairo has put thousands of tombs in a vast and ancient Islamic cemetery under threat, causing outcry among conservationists and family members. Known as the City of the Dead, the cemeteries along the eastern edge of Historic Cairo have been a resting […]
Curbs on rights weaken Egypt’s climate talks, campaigners say
Sharm el-Sheikh, EgyptReuters In a fenced-off area guarded by police on the fringe of the global climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, around 30 Egyptian youths stood in a neat line holding up placards and chanting “Save our Planet”. The small, muted protest took place in an area designated for demonstrations by summit host Egypt, where […]
Essay: The killing of Father Arsanious Wadid is a reminder more needs to be done to ensure religious equality
ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, says the killing of a Coptic Orthodox priests in Alexandria earlier this month is “just the latest reminder of the continuing persecution of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community”…
Israel and Hamas agree Gaza truce to end 11 days of conflict
Gaza/Jerusalem Reuters Israel and Hamas will cease fire across the Gaza Strip border as of Friday, the Palestinian Islamist faction and Egyptian state TV said, bringing a potentially tenuous halt to the fiercest fighting in years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said his security cabinet had voted unanimously in favour of a “mutual and […]
Church construction slows under Egypt’s new church-building law
World Watch Monitor A 2016 law designed to make it easier to establish and build churches in Egypt has not eased the bottleneck, according to a new report. The 12th December report, issued by the Project on Middle East Democracy, said approval of church building projects actually has slowed under the new law. The government […]
Human rights situation “progressively deteriorating” in Egypt says report
The upholding of human rights in Egypt has progressively deteriorated since the revolution of 25th January, 2011, according to a new report from Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The UK-based religious freedom advocacy says in the report that the deterioration – which has included a repression of human rights “in the name of counter-terrorism” and comes against a backdrop […]