CAIRO, Jan 20, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Egypt’s state of emergency is set to reach
the three-year mark by April after the government announced it would extend
it by another three months from Monday next week.
The North African country has been under a state of emergency since April
2017 bombings of two Coptic churches by an Islamic State group affiliate that
killed more than 40 people.
The extension comes nine years after the January 2011 uprising that
toppled former president Hosni Mubarak, who had also ruled for decades under
a state of emergency.
“The president of Egypt ordered the extension of the state of emergency
nationwide for three months starting Monday, January 27,” said the official
gazette on Sunday.
Under a state of emergency, police powers such as arresting and holding
citizens are extended and constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and
assembly are curtailed.
Egypt has for years been battling an Islamist insurgency, which surged
following the 2013 military ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi.
The attacks have been largely concentrated in the restive northern Sinai
Peninsula but occasionally struck elsewhere in the country.
In February 2018, Egypt launched a large-scale nationwide anti-militant
operation.
Rights groups say the state of emergency coupled with the government’s
effective protest ban since 2013 has helped it in crushing dissent.
In September, rare minor protests broke out in Egypt triggered by online
calls for Sisi’s removal.
Some 4,000 people were arrested in the following weeks, according to local
rights groups.
Activists have called it one of the worst waves of a crackdown against any
dissent that was launched when Sisi officially took power in 2014.