TheNewsGuru

Tag: Egypt

  • Egypt identifies Alexandria church bomber as fugitive with militant ties

    Egypt identifies Alexandria church bomber as fugitive with militant ties

    Egyptian authorities have named the suicide bomber who attacked a cathedral in Alexandria as 31-year-old Mahmoud Abdullah, describing him as a fugitive with links to militant cells that carried out previous strikes in the country.

    Abdullah detonated his explosives at the entrance to Saint Mark’s Cathedral, the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, killing 17 people as mass was being conducted.

    Hours earlier, another bomb tore through a church in Tanta, a city in the Nile Delta.

    Egypt’s government imposed a three-month state of emergency in the wake of the attacks.

    The interior ministry said in a statement that Abdullah had been a resident of Suez province and used to work for a petroleum company.

    It posted a photograph on its Facebook page of a man it said was Abdullah, placing the image alongside a picture taken by a surveillance camera outside the church.

    Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Palm Sunday attacks, which killed 44 people in total and wounded scores more a week before the Coptic Easter.

    The interior ministry said Abdullah had links with the Islamist militant cell behind the December suicide bombing on Cairo’s main Coptic cathedral, an attack also claimed by Islamic State.

    Authorities are still trying to identify the Tanta attacker, the ministry said.

    It added that security forces killed seven suspected militants in a shootout on Monday as they met to plan attacks on minority Christians.

    The statement named 19 other suspected militants believed to belong to the same cells and offered a 100 thousand Egyptian pound (5,515.72 dollars) reward for any information on them.

    Sunday’s attacks were the latest against a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants, and a challenge to President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who has pledged to protect them as part of his campaign against extremism.

  • FG condoles with Egypt, Russia over terrorist attacks

    The Federal Government has expressed its deepest condolences to the families of the victims, the Governments and people of Egypt and Russia over terrorist attacks in the two countries.

    A statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Dr Clement Aduku on Monday in Abuja condemned the attacks.

    Nigerian government expressed concern on the reports of the terrorist attacks on two Coptic Churches in the towns of Tanta and Alexandria, Egypt, on Sunday April 9, leaving over 44 people dead.

    The government according to the statement also expressed shock on the reports of terrorist bombing of a St. Petersburg train on Monday April 3 that killed 14 people while many others were wounded.

    According to the statement, Egypt had in the recent times experienced terrorist attacks, and that Nigeria condemned such callous and cowardly acts against innocent people.

    “In this regard, the Nigerian people stand in solidarity with our Egyptian brothers and sisters to denounce these terrorists who seek to destroy our common human values and civilization. We therefore share in your grief.

    “Nigeria also stands in total solidarity with the Government and people of Russia at this tragic moment and offer our full cooperation.

    “The Nigerian government will work closely with the Russian Federation at all international fora to stamp out terrorism globally,” it stated

  • U.S., UN, others condemn Egypt’s churches attacks

    The United States and United Nations has condemned terrorist attacks on two churches in Egypt during the celebration of the Palm Sunday.

    The Department of State, in a statement issued by its Spokesperson, Mr Mark Toner, described the bombings as barbaric.

    “The United States condemns in the strongest terms, the barbaric attacks on Christian places of worship in Tanta and Alexandria that killed dozens of innocent people and injured many more on this holy day of Palm Sunday.

    “We express our condolences to the families and friends of the victims and wish a quick recovery for all those injured.

    “The United States will continue to support Egypt’s security and stability in its efforts to defeat terrorism,” the statement said.

    Personally, President Donald Trump condemned the attacks and urged the Egyptian Government to handle the “unfortunate’’ incident properly.

    “It is so sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt. U.S. strongly condemns it.

    “I have great confidence that President Al Sisi will handle the situation properly,” Trump said on his Twitter handle.

    Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres and the Security Council also condemned the bombings.

    Guterres, in a statement by his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, hoped that “the perpetrators of this horrific terrorist act will be swiftly identified and brought to justice”.

    In a separate statement, the Security Council called the bombings “heinous and cowardly”, and reaffirmed that terrorism was one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.

    The bombings were also strongly condemned by the High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC).

    The UN body said that the attacks, which occurred during Palm Sunday when both churches were packed with worshippers aimed at ruining the unity and diversity that characterized the Egyptian society.

    Launched in 2005 through the initiative of Spain and Turkey, under the auspices of the UN, the Alliance maintains a global network of partners.

    The UNAOC’s alliance includes States, international and regional organizations, civil society groups, foundations and the private sector, to improve cross-cultural relations between diverse nations and communities.

    Guterres, the Security Council and the UNAOC expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims of the attacks and to the Government of Egypt.

    They also wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured, according to the statements.

    The UN scribe and the bodies stressed the need to bring everyone responsible for the attacks to justice, and urged UN member-states to cooperate with Egypt and all other relevant authorities.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the attacks killed no fewer than 41 people and injured more than 100 others in two Coptic churches.

     

     

    NAN

  • ‘Palm Sunday: Double Church explosion kill 37 congregants…’

    ‘Palm Sunday: Double Church explosion kill 37 congregants…’

    Two blasts targeting Egyptian churches have killed at least 37 people and wounded more than a 100, Health Ministry officials said.

    “The first attack hit a church packed with Palm Sunday worshipers in the Nile Delta town of Tanta, north of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 26 people and wounding 78 others, authorities confirmed.” NBC News reports.

    Hours later a second blast went off in front of a church in Alexandria, killing some 11 people and injuring 35.

    Palm Sunday is one of the holiest days of the Christian calendar, marking the triumphant entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem. “The explosion took place in the front rows, near the altar, during the mass,” General Tarek Atiya, the deputy to Egypt’s interior minister in charge of relations with the media, told AFP.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s blast. Copts, who make up about one tenth of Egypt’s population of more than 92 million and who celebrate Easter next weekend, have been targeted by several attacks in recent months.

    Pope Francis is due to visit Cairo on April 28-29 to show solidarity with Egypt’s Christian community. Jihadists and Islamists accuse Copts of supporting the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, which ushered in a deadly crackdown on his supporters. In December, a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group killed 29 worshippers during Sunday mass in Cairo.

    The bombing of the church within a compound that also holds the seat of the Coptic papacy was the deadliest attack against the minority in recent memory. A spate of jihadist-linked attacks in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula, including the murder of a Copt in the city of El Arish whose house was also burned, have led some Coptic families to flee their homes.

    About 250 Christians took refuge in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya after IS released a video in February calling for attacks on the religious minority. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid called Sunday’s bombing “a failed attempt against our unity”. “Terrorism hits Egypt again, this time on Palm Sunday,” he tweeted. – String of attacks – Prime Minister Sherif Ismail also condemned Sunday’s apparent attack, stressing Egypt’s determination to “eliminate terrorism”.

    The Cairo-based Al-Azhar, an influential Sunni Muslim authority, said Sunday’s bombing aimed to “destabilise security and… the unity of Egyptians”. Egypt’s Copts have endured successive attacks since Morsi’s ouster in July 2013. More than 40 churches were attacked nationwide in the two weeks after the deadly dispersal by security forces of two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo on August 14, 2013, Human Rights Watch said. Amnesty International later said more than 200 Christian-owned properties were attacked and 43 churches seriously damaged, adding that at least four people were killed. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as then army chief helped remove Morsi, has defended his security forces and accused jihadists of attacking Copts in order to divide the country.

    In October 2011, almost 30 people — mostly Coptic Christians — were killed after the army charged at a protest outside the state television building in Cairo to denounce the torching of a church in southern Egypt. In May that year, clashes between Muslims and Copts left 15 dead in the working-class Cairo neighbourhood of Imbaba where two churches were attacked. A few months earlier, the unclaimed bombing of a Coptic church killed more than 20 people in Egypt’s second city of Alexandria on New Year’s Day. Pope Francis will visit the site of the December church attack next to Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral — the seat of Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II.

  • Egypt gets first female Governor

     

    For the first time in Egypt’s history a woman has been appointed as a provincial governor.

    According to BBC report, Nadia Ahmed Abdou has been sworn into office in the Governorate of Beheira, in the Nile Delta.

    She’s an engineer with a long record of public service and her foerce decision-making powers have seen her earn the nickname “iron woman”.

    The news site Egyptian Streets reports that she has served as the deputy governor since 2013. She spent 10 years, from 2002 to 2012, as chief of the Alexandria Drinking Water Company.

    She was also the first woman to hold this post.

     

     

  • Egypt: We prevented 12,000 people from illegally migrating in 2016

    Egyptian border patrol and coast guard forces stopped more than 12,000 people of various nationalities from illegally entering or leaving the country in 2016, the military said.

    Migrants have tried to cross to Italy from the African coast, particularly from Libya, where people traffickers operate with relative impunity.

    However, boats have increasingly departed from Egypt.

    The military listed “The arrest of 12,192 people of various nationalities and a total of 434 cases of illegal migration.

    Egypt passed legislation in October to crack down on people traffickers linked to a surge in the numbers of migrants departing from its Mediterranean coast on sea journeys to Europe.

    A boat carrying about 450 people capsized off the Egyptian coast in September. About 202 bodies were subsequently recovered from the sea and 169 people rescued.

    Some 320 migrants and refugees drowned off the Greek island of Crete in June and survivors said their boat had set sail from Egypt.

    A Reuter’s investigation found that a fishing boat carrying hundreds of migrants that capsized in April had set sail from Egypt, not Libya as previously reported.

    It said that about 500 people died the largest loss of human life in the Mediterranean Sea in 2016.