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Egyptians accuse Sisi of murdering residents of Sinai

October 14, 2019 at 9:35 am | Published in: Africa, Egypt, Twitter Trends
October 14, 2019 at 9:35 am

Egyptians held their country's President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, responsible for the massacre that took place on Saturday evening when a shell hit a truck carrying civilians in the city of Bir El Abd in the Sinai Peninsula.

According to Associated Press news agency, security officials and medics said that at least nine people from one family were killed in the incident, while six others were injured and taken to hospital.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the shelling that hit the family as they returned home from a private olive farm, residents in Bir El Abd said.

Social media activists said that the shelling killed at least ten civilians and the injured 20, some of whom are in a critical condition.

A video circulating on social media showed the gathering of families of the victims and the injured in front of the central hospital of Bir El Abd.

Activists said that among the dead were eight members of the same family, including four women, after the shelling that targeted a vehicle that was carrying them after they finished collecting the olive crop.

In turn, many Egyptians have expressed their anger at the government, holding Al-Sisi and the military responsible for the incident.

They launched the hashtag "Al-Sisi kills Sinai residents", becoming the most trending hashtags in the country.

Egyptians expressed their surprise at the way their country's government is dealing with Sinai residents, saying that they are being deliberately targeted by the state.

They posted a photo of a baby with cuts on his forehead and said he was the only survivor among his family members who had died in the incident.

They voiced their surprise over Al-Sisi's silence, stressing that the president, the army and all those that support them are responsible for this incident .

For years, Al-Sisi has been promoting the idea that his country's forces are fighting terrorism in Sinai, while the Egyptians are surprised that this fight is only affecting the population there without affecting the terrorists.

Social media users called out Al-Sisi for his lack of care for the Egyptian people, citing the numerous crimes that have taken place and caused civilian deaths without the president speaking out.

 

 

Other Twitter users accused President Al-Sisi of treason and working for Israel, saying he is seeking to exterminate the people of Sinai, while others demanded he be executed.

This incident has followed a series of armed attacks and bombings targeting civilians in Sinai.

Egypt has long claimed it is fighting Islamist militants who have waged an insurgency that has killed hundreds of soldiers, police, and residents, in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

A Reuters investigation in April found that Egyptian security forces had shot dead hundreds of suspected militants in what the Interior Ministry said were gun battles, but which bereaved families said were extrajudicial executions.

Human rights organisations have accused Egypt of carrying out extrajudicial executions and of trying civilians in military courts as part of the crackdown.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said the matter of human rights should be treated in the context of regional turbulence and the struggle against terrorism. Strong security measures, he has said, are needed to stabilise Egypt after the turmoil that followed the country's 2011 uprising.

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