Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label Hosni Mubarak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hosni Mubarak. Show all posts

Sunday, May 19, 2019

BREAKING: Bomb blast targets tourist bus near Egypt's famed pyramids


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REUTERS/Ahmed Fahmy | A damaged bus is seen at the site of a blast near a new museum being built close to the Giza pyramids in Cairo, Egypt May 19, 2019

by Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla, France24, Cairo. Disclosure: Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla dated when she was based in Jerusalem.
At least 17 people were injured on Sunday in a blast targeting a tourist bus near the new Egyptian museum close to the Giza Pyramids, Egyptian officials said.
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The roadside bomb went off as the bus was being driven in Giza, also causing injuries to Egyptians in a nearby car, medical and security sources said.
There were no deaths reported.
"A device exploded and smashed the windows of a bus carrying 25 people from South Africa and a private car carrying four Egyptians," the security source said. 
Video footage captured by AFP showed the bus and car with broken windows on the side of the road.
According to the security source, the wounded were being treated for scratches caused by the broken glass.
Ndivhuwo Mabaya, spokesman for South Africa's department of international relations, told us at France24  that "there might be South Africans involved" but declined to give any figures.
Sunday's incident comes after three Vietnamese holidaymakers and their Egyptian guide were killed when a roadside bomb hit their bus as it travelled near the Giza pyramids outside Cairo in December.
It also comes just little more than a month before the African Cup of Nations hosted by Egypt is to kick off.
Egypt has been battling an insurgency that surged especially in the turbulent North Sinai region following the 2013 military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was replaced by former army general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
In February 2018, the army launched a nationwide operation against militants, focusing mainly on the North Sinai region.
Some 650 militants and around 45 soldiers have been killed since the start of the offensive, according to separate statements by the armed forces.
Since first being elected in 2014, Sisi has presented himself as a bulwark against terrorism, promising stability and increased security.
Recently, the country's vital tourism industry has started to slowly rebound after suffering strong blows due to deadly attacks targeting tourists following the turmoil of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.
Figures by the official statistics agency showed that tourist arrivals reached 8.3 million in 2017, compared with 5.3 million the previous year. 
Authorities have gone at great lengths to lure tourists back, touting a series of archaeological finds and a new museum next to the pyramids, as well as enhanced security at airports and around ancient sites. 
But that figure was still far short of the record influx of 2010 when more than 14 million visitors flocked to see the country's sites.

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Friday, April 26, 2019

ANALYSIS: Iconic places of protests around the world


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Sudanese demonstrators pushing for change have camped out in front of the the army headquarters in Khartoum for weeks, turning it into the latest icon of protest around the world
Sudanese demonstrators pushing for change have camped out in front of the the army headquarters in Khartoum for weeks, turning it into the latest icon of protest around the world AFP
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by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, France24 News Analysts
Thousands of anti-government protesters have been camped outside the Sudan army headquarters in Khartoum for three weeks, staying put to demand civilian rule even after Omar al-Bashir quit power on April 11.
The sit-in started on April 6 and has grown in size as pressure mounts against the military authorities in scenes reminiscent of other iconic places of protest in cities around the world.
Here are some examples.
- Kiev: Maidan, 2014 -
Independence Square -- often known just as Maidan -- was in 2013-2014 the epicentre of three months of bloody protests in Ukraine that led to the toppling of Russia-backed president Viktor Yanukovych.
The pro-Western demonstrations began in November 2013 when Yanukovych scotched a political deal with the European Union.
Hundreds of thousands of people converged on the square, setting up tents and building barricades to keep the security forces out. There were also health centres, a library, heating facilities and free food.
The tensions came to a head in February 2014 when police opened fire, killing dozens and bringing to over 100 the number of protestors killed in the uprising. Yanukovych fled.
- Istanbul: Taksim, 2013 -
On May 31, 2013 Turkey's security forces cracked down on demonstrators who staged a rally against government plans to redevelop a park near Istanbul's Taksim Square.
It sparked protests that quickly grew into the first major demonstrations against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he took power in 2002.
Protesters occupied the area and put up tents, remaining on site around the clock before being evicted on June 15.
The nearly three weeks of demonstrations left four people dead and some 8,000 injured.
- Cairo: Tahrir, 2011 -
The massive Tahrir Square near the Nile River is most famous for the two-week sit-in that pushed Hosni Mubarak to quit in 2011 after 30 years in power.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters occupied Tahrir -- which means freedom -- from January 25 to February 11, sleeping under plastic sheets or at the foot of army tanks.
The revolt was one of the first in the Arab Spring uprisings.
It led to Islamist Mohamed Morsi being elected before he too was removed in July 2013.
- Manama: Pearl Square, 2011 -
Pro-democracy demonstrations that erupted in Bahrain in February 2011 focused on Pearl Square in the capital Manama, the site of a large monument of a giant pearl on top of sweeping arches.
People began to rally there on February 14, with the Shiite majority demanding more rights from the Sunni authorities.
After three days of protests, riot police charged the square in a pre-dawn raid that left several dead.
People returned and demonstrations escalated until security forces moved in to clear the month-old protest camp.
The Pearl Square roundabout and its central monument were razed.
- Beijing: Tiananmen, 1989 -
One of the biggest public squares in the world, it is here that Mao Zedong in 1949 proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China.
But Tiananmen Square is better known for the unprecedented weeks-long 1989 uprising that ended in a bloody crackdown.
Students, intellectuals and workers began gathering on the square in April 1989 to mark the death of a pro-reform figure and demand democratic changes.
At its peak, more than a million were assembled.
On the evening of June 3, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and tens of thousands of troops converged on the square, using automatic weapons to shoot unarmed citizens.
Estimates for the number killed vary from several hundred to more than 1,000. China's government has never released a definitive death toll.


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Friday, March 24, 2017

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s ex-president, is set free--an analysis

The dictator walks
by Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla, Political News Analysts, The Economist Intelligence Unit, Cairo

But his opponents remain in prison

Middle East and Africa

| Cairo
SIX years after the Arab spring, during which Egyptians toppled Hosni Mubarak, their president for nearly three decades, the country’s political regression can be summed up by its roster of prisoners. It includes Muhammad Morsi, who became Egypt’s first democratically elected president in 2012, and many of his fellow Islamists in the Muslim Brotherhood, who dominated the post-revolution parliament. After Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, then a general, now president, ousted Mr Morsi in 2013, the authorities also began locking up liberal activists—many of them the very people who had helped push Mr Mubarak out.
Notably absent from the list are any of Mr Mubarak’s former allies and, as of March 24th, Mr Mubarak himself. Egypt’s former strongman was quietly released from state custody after three years confined to a military hospital in Cairo, in a room with a view of the Nile. Though he still faces an investigation into alleged corruption involving gifts from a state-owned newspaper, his release all but ends the protracted effort to hold him accountable for the many misdeeds committed during his rule and its chaotic ending. He is now back in his mansion in Heliopolis, a relatively posh neighbourhood in Cairo.

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Since his ouster, Mr Mubarak has faced charges ranging from corruption and embezzlement to conspiring with the police to kill hundreds of protesters during the Arab spring. He was convicted of the latter charge in 2012, and sentenced to life in prison. But the verdict was overturned on appeal in 2015, and a retrial ordered. He was eventually exonerated. So it went for Mr Mubarak, who eluded punishment in most of the cases against him—his fortunes improving as Egypt’s “deep state”, composed of hidebound judges, security forces and military men, gradually reasserted itself.
Mr Mubarak and his sons, Alaa and Gamal, who once seemed to be his father’s intended successor, could not escape one charge. The courts ruled that they had embezzled millions of dollars from the state in order to refurbish the family pad in Heliopolis and other private residences. They were given three-year sentences and ordered to pay $20m in fines and restitution. Counting time served in detention against their sentences, Alaa and Gamal were released in 2015. Mr Mubarak himself remained under guard until he was cleared of killing protesters earlier this month.
Throughout his legal battles, Mr Mubarak claimed that he was the victim. Said to be in poor health, he was often wheeled into court on a hospital bed and forced to sit in a cage like other defendants. Early on, his anger was matched by that of his opponents. But as Egypt spiralled from one crisis to another, and Egyptians faced more immediate challenges, such as an ailing economy, the pursuit of Mr Mubarak lost steam. Amid the chaos, the dictator’s supporters re-emerged, lauding the relative order of his rule.
Mr Mubarak’s release places Mr Sisi in a tricky situation. He has praised the revolution, despite being more authoritarian than Mr Mubarak, whose cosy detention was often seen as less about justice and more an effort to avoid digging up the past. It is not clear if Mr Mubarak or, more likely, his sons, who have made several appearances since being released, will try to make a comeback. Several Mubarak-era officials have re-entered politics in recent years.
The fall of Mr Mubarak in 2011 seemed to mark the start of a new era for Egypt. But although Egyptians united in opposition to his rule, their differences re-emerged during the country’s short-lived experiment with democracy. Now Egypt looks much as it did before the revolution, or even more repressive. The release of Mr Mubarak, while thousands of his opponents languish in prison, is emblematic of that sad fact. 
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