Sun 22 September 2019:
Security forces in Egypt have clashed with hundreds of protesters in the port city of Suez, according to media reports, firing tear gas and live rounds to disperse crowds calling for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to quit.
The unrest on Saturday came a day after thousands of people took to the streets in several Egyptian cities in a rare show of dissent against el-Sisi, who has overseen a broad crackdown on dissent including the jailing of thousands of dissidents and the effective banning of protests.
A protester in Suez told the AFP news agency about 200 people headed to the city’s downtown area for a second night in a row, where they were met by security forces and armoured vehicles.
“They [security force] fired tear gas, rubber and live bullets and there were injuries”, the man who declined to be named told the AFP.
Another resident, who also preferred to remain anonymous, said the tear gas was so thick it had reached her apartment block a few kilometres away from the turbulent downtown area.
“My nose started burning up. The smell was seeping through the balcony. I also saw some youth run and hide in our street”, the woman said.
Protests were also reported in Giza, the capital Cairo’s twin city, and in the northern town of Mahalla. Al Jazeera is banned from reporting inside Egypt.
Meanwhile, a heavy security presence was maintained in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicentre of Egypt’s 2011 revolution that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.
The AFP, citing an unnamed security source, said at least 74 people had been arrested on Friday in the capital after clashes between police and protesters, who had marched through the streets of Cairo, chanting slogans including “Leave, Sisi!” and demanding the “fall of the regime”.
The Human Rights Watch has called for their immediate release. The Egyptian government is yet to comment.
El-Sisi denied the corruption allegations last week, saying he was “honest and faithful” to his people and the military.
Nael Shama, a Cairo-based political analyst, told the AFP that the protests “pose the most serious legitimacy crisis facing Sisi”.
“No one shouted bread, freedom, social justice like in 2011, they escalated straight to ‘Leave’ from the first minute,” she said, adding: “This is the first time people take to the streets in many years but I am not sure it will be the last.”
Meanwhile, the government’s foreign media accreditation body released a statement late on Saturday cautioning international journalists that their reporting of events “should not be exaggerated”, without explicitly mentioning the protests.
The Islamist group, once considered one of Egypt’s most organised political forces, was outlawed as a “terror” group in 2013 after the military’s overthrow of Morsi.
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