Egypt - The African Mirror

Nov

2020

UN, several countries denounce arrests of Egyptian activists

THE U.N. human rights office, the United States and several European countries on Friday criticised the arrest of three members of a prominent Egyptian rights group after a meeting with diplomats in Cairo. In the past week, security forces detained three staff, including the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), after 13 senior diplomats visited the group for a briefing on human rights on November 3. EIPR said all three have been ordered detained for 15 days on charges of joining a terrorist group and spreading false news, in what critics see as the latest escalation of…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Bedouins go back to their roots in Egypt as COVID-19 hits tourism

COVID-19

MENNA A. FAROUK FOR years, Um Saad has been urging fellow Bedouins to tend their orchards and vegetable patches in the mountains of Egypt's South Sinai. It took a pandemic for them to listen to her. Tourism, her community's main source of income, has been wobbly for years - rattled by militant attacks and political unrest. But COVID-19 has decimated the sector, encouraging many Bedouins to go back to the livelihoods of their ancestors. "This is one good thing about the coronavirus," said Um Saad, 75, sitting outside the house where she has lived for decades near the town of…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Satellite data provides fresh insights into the amount of water in the Nile basin

ENVIRONMENT

FLOWING through 11 African countries, the Nile River plays an important role in the lives of more than 24% of Africa’s population. To both upstream and downstream countries, the Nile waters are crucial in development planning, food and energy production. EMAD HASAN, Postdoctoral Researcher in Remote Sensing Hydrology, Binghamton University, State University of New York AONDOVER TARHULE, Professor, Vice president for Academic Affairs and Provost, at Illinois State University, Illinois State University As countries vie for these resources, there has been immense tension. Most notably, Egypt and Sudan have challenged Ethiopia’s decision to construct and fill the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Egypt sentences 59 people to jail over 2013 sit-in

NEWS

A court in Egypt has sentenced 59 people to 15 years in prison for their role in organising and participating in a 2013 sit-in that ended with security forces killing hundreds of protesters, a judicial source said. Seven defendants were sentenced to five years in prison, while 29 were acquitted. The sit-in continued for weeks at Rabaa al-Adawiya square in Cairo to protest against the overthrow of former president Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, before being violently broken up by security forces. The government says many protesters were armed, and that some members of the security forces were killed.…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Saudi Arabia jails eight over Khashoggi murder, fiancee decries trial

WORLD

MARWA RASHAD and RAYA JALABI A Saudi Arabian court has jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years for the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, four months after his family forgave his killers and enabled death sentences to be set aside. The trial was criticised by a United Nations official and human rights campaigners who said the masterminds of the murder remained free. Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, where he had gone to obtain documents for his impending wedding.…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Egypt’s #MeToo crusader fights sex crimes via Instagram

NEWS

MENNA A. FAROUK AFTER exposing two major sexual assaults in her first two months as an Instagram activist, and spurring Egypt to bring in a law to protect victims' identities, Nadeen Ashraf has bigger plans. The 22-year-old student wants to turn her #MeToo-style Instagram account Assault Police, which has emboldened hundreds of Egyptian women to speak out about violence, into an advocacy group that can win justice for sexual assault survivors. "I want to create an entity on a wide scale where women can go to when they experience any violence to help them get their rights," Ashraf told the…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Egypt detains second suspect in alleged rape case, three more held in Lebanon

NEWS

EGYPTIAN public prosecutors have ordered the detention of a second man suspected of being involved in an alleged gang rape at a luxury hotel in Cairo in 2014 pending investigations, they said in a statement on Sunday. Police arrested the man on August 28, days after a first suspect was arrested in Cairo. Seven other suspects fled the country between July 27 and July 29 after claims against them began circulating on the internet, the public prosecutor's office said on Wednesday. Five of the seven suspects escaped to Lebanon, where security forces August 28 arrested three of them after receiving…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Egypt detains suspect in high-profile rape case

NEWS

EGYPTIAN public prosecutors ordered the detention of a man suspected of being involved in an alleged gang rape at a luxury Cairo hotel in 2014 for four days pending investigation, they have announced in a statement. The man, who is also a suspect in other similar cases, was arrested by police on Wednesday as he tried to flee abroad like seven other suspects in the case, which has been the focus of an online campaign against sexual assault in Egypt, they said. The seven suspects fled the country between July 27 and July 29 after claims against them started to…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Egypt orders arrests after Instagram account exposes gang rape

NEWS

MENNA A FAROUK EGYPTIAN authorities have ordered the arrests of a group of men accused of being involved in a gang rape at a Cairo hotel amid a rare debate about sex crimes that started on social media and has fuelled a growing #MeToo movement. Lack of action over the 2014 incident, that was reported to have involved six men from powerful families, caused an uproar after being disclosed in July by an Instagram account with more than 180,000 followers that aims to expose sex attackers. The case came after the same Instagram account, Assault Police, named a university student…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Egypt passes law shielding sex crime victims’ identities

NEWS

EGYPT's parliament has given its final approval to a law protecting the identity of victims of sexual harassment and assault, aimed at encouraging women who fear social stigma to report such crimes. The measure was proposed by the government after a rare public debate about sex crimes, which followed a social media campaign that led to the arrest of a suspected sex offender. A new article added to the Criminal Procedure Law would ban investigative authorities from disclosing information about victims in such crimes, except to defendants or their lawyers. It will take effect once approved by President Abdel Fattah…