CAIRO // Tens of thousands of opponents of Egypt's military-backed government poured into the streets of central Cairo yesterday, sparking clashes with security forces that left dozens dead.
Clamouring wildly for the fall of military chief General Abdel Fattah El Sisi, the crowds faced off against police and army troops in a powerful show of anger at the crushing of Islamists sit-ins this week.
Military helicopters circled overhead as residents set up checkpoints throughout the capital. Police fired tear gas as clashes erupted between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and locals opposed to their protest, as the demonstrators marched to the city centre.
There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties. Dozens of bodies piled up in a makeshift field hospital in Al Fath mosque downtown, with security officials telling Reuters the death toll was at least 50, with at least 20 more killed in clashes elsewhere in Egypt. Other reports had the death toll as high as 80.
Ignited by the outrage over the deaths of hundreds of people on Wednesday during the government's clampdown on the two protest camps, the protests raged into the late afternoon. The interior ministry said 638 people were killed, while Brotherhood members believe thousands died.
Before the clashes broke out, men with their names scrawled on their arms so they could identified if they were killed rallied at Al Fath mosque. They had said they were ready to joins the hundreds of Islamists who died this week.
Hundreds of people gathered at the mosque, where the sermon was given by Saleh Sultan, a prominent Islamist who spoke often at the Rabia Al Adawiyya camp that was destroyed by security forces on Wednesday.
Holding pictures of the Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, who was unseated by the military on July 3 a year after being elected, many of the men sobbed as they prayed. Most people had lost someone they knew in the violence of the last week.
"Whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption in the land, it is as if he has slain mankind entirely," Sheikh Sultan said, quoting a Quranic verse intended to condemn the actions of the security forces.
Many worshippers spoke of increasing isolation in their neighbourhoods and fear of violence from civilian opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
"My neighbours are Coptic Christians," said Abdullah Morad, 52, who lives in the Shubra area. "They were friends for more than 45 years, but the Christians change their minds - I don't know why. They refuse to talk to us."
The Coptic Pope Tawadros II has condemned the Muslim Brotherhood for several attacks on churches since Wednesday's unrest.
Mr Morad said his neighbours had put a poster of Gen Al Sisi in their window, "to provoke me".
Others spoke of their fear that vigilante groups, often armed with sticks and clubs that have sprung up across Cairo, would attack them.
"I heard about someone whose beard was shaved, and he was tortured," said Malik Farag, a religious scholar, who said he stayed on side streets to avoid the "thugs".
Ahmed Kamel, 26, an art student from the upscale Maadi neighbourhood, said he had seen a man killed near a civilian checkpoint the previous night.
"I was just passing by, and I saw him lying on the ground, a bearded man," Mr Kamel said. "In my area, I am always afraid to tell people I am anti-coup and that's why I always try to hide my political orientation."
During the sermon, Sheikh Sultan called for demonstrations to remain peaceful, and demonstrators universally proclaimed non-violence. But an hour after prayers, and thousands of people surged from mosques across Cairo, over the bridges and into the streets, the crowd became frenzied.
Some people called to burn police stations, thousands chanted that the police were thugs. Unimpeded by any security forces until they reached the May 15 bridge over the Nile, they marched ahead angrily.
By midafternoon, they filled the corniche on the banks of the Nile, and were kept back from the area around the British embassy and Kempinsky hotel with tear gas.
By late evening, Al Jazeera television reported that it had counted 53 bodies in the mosque. Gunshots echoed round the posh Zamalek neighbourhood until late afternoon, with residents reporting that they had seen civilians, as well as uniformed police and army, participating in heavy fighting on the May 15 bridge over the island.
An interior ministry statement called for "civilians" to leave the city centre so that clearing operations could begin. The ministry on Thursday had issued a statement authorising the use of live ammunition to protect government buildings.
afordham@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by the Associated Press
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
'HIJRAH%3A%20IN%20THE%20FOOTSTEPS%20OF%20THE%20PROPHET'
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEdited%20by%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Idries%20Trevathan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPages%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20240%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hirmer%20Publishers%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EAvailable%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Khalid%20Fahad%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Shaima%20Al%20Tayeb%2C%20Wafa%20Muhamad%2C%20Hamss%20Bandar%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
match info
Chelsea 2
Willian (13'), Ross Barkley (64')
Liverpool 0
