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Egypt to deport 7 Nigerian anti-police brutality protesters

November 3, 2020 at 1:07 pm

Burnt buses during a protest against police brutality, in Lagos, Nigeria on 3 November 2020 [PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images]

In October there were more than two weeks of protests in Nigeria against the impunity of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS.

Demonstrators took to the streets against police brutality and the shooting of peaceful protesters. They demanded an end to the SARS accusing them of torture, extortion, harassment and extrajudicial killings.

Of the eight anti-SARS protesters detained in Cairo, seven will be investigated and then deported for what authorities say is lack of resident permits.

Their arrest has been criticised by many who fear it was engineered by the Nigerian government.

In October last year speaker of the Egyptian House of representatives, Ali Abdel Aal, said that relations with Nigeria were progressing.

READ: Egypt: Prime Minister warns of full Covid-19 lockdown

Egypt exports to Nigeria are increasing as economic relations between the countries strengthen.

Police brutality is also a huge issue in Egypt and has increased since the 2011 uprising despite revolutionaries calling for it to end.

In early September protests broke out across Egypt after a young man, Islam the Australian, died of suspected torture after objecting to a policeman insulting his mother.

During the September protests that followed not long afterwards, two men, 25-year-old Sami Wagdy Bashir, and Awais Al-Rawi, were shot by police.