Sunday, November 22, 2015

In Case you do not know , there is a new crisis between Egypt and Sudan

And it seems that there is a new crisis between Egypt and Sudan thanks to the police brutality.
Since the start of November, the crisis has been growing and the Egyptian media did not care or cover it.
We all know about it from social media and Sudanese media  in Egypt unfortunately.
It seems that several Sudanese citizens were arrested and mistreated by Egyptian security forces for allegedly foreign exchange issue.
According to the Sudanese community in Egypt , not less 15 Sudanese citizens were arrested and mistreated in Downtown Cairo police stations for allegedly illegal foreign exchange and fraud in the past few weeks.
Most of the reports revolve around Abdeen and Azbakia police stations in Downtown Cairo.
One of those incidents is creating huge anger in Sudan currently: The incident of Mr.Yahia Zakaria.
Mr. Zakaria came to Cairo accompanying his sick son and his friend.
According to Sudanese press , Zakaria and his friend were entering a foreign exchange company to exchange US dollars with Egyptian pounds when they were arrested by under-covered police officers.
A scan for the Sudanese newspaper with a report about
the torture of one the Sudanese citizens in Cairo
"17 November" 
The 50-years old Sudanese man and his friend spent their night at a police station in downtown Cairo where they were allegedly harassed racially.
Next Day, they were referred to the prosecution where it turned out that Zakaria had $500 and LE4,000 while his friend had $1600 and 2000 Sudanese pound.
The two men were released by the prosecution but instead of walking free, the police referred them to the National security after three more days in detention.


The National security demanded more investigation about them and sent them to Abdeen police station in Downtown Cairo.
At Abdeen police station , the two men were mistreated.
When the man allegedly began to scream and demand to return to his sick son at the hotel, He was badly beaten and tortured.
Photos showing the traces of beating on Mr. Zakaria's body
"Facebook" 

He was allowed to call his relatives in Cairo to look after his sick son.
After his call , his family knew what happened him and his brother came to Cairo.
He was released and allowed to leave in Cairo but arrived to Cairo airport in handcuffs.
The Sudanese embassy already presented two memos rejecting incidents of the Egyptian police’s mistreatment of Sudanese citizens that reached over the foreign currency exchange issue and demanding the Egyptian government to stop it immediately.
The memo sent to Egyptian MOFA
from Sudanese embassy in Cairo
"12 November 2015"  
The first  memo was sent on 2 November and the second memo was sent on 12 November according to Sudanese Press.
The Egyptian ministry of foreign affairs Spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid told a Sudanese newspaper last week that the ministry was investigating the incidents.
He also added that there was no discrimination for Sudanese people and they were treated like their Egyptian brothers and sisters.
All what I can say to the Sudanese people is that there is no actually discrimination between Egyptians and Sudanese when it comes to police mistreatment and brutality for real, the Ministry of foreign affairs spox is saying the truth !!
Police brutality is the norm now to the level to the level that we find people decent and polite officers on Facebook pages as if it is a rare thing.
A campaign launched in Sudan by the angry people called “We are Zakria” demanding the rights of Zakaria Yahia
The family of Yahia Zakaria , the victim participated in a protesting stand at the Egyptian embassy in Khartoum on Thursday.
Other angry citizens participated in it too but soon the stand was dispersed due to the lack of permits.
The Zakarias met with the Egyptian ambassador and gave him a file with what happened to the man who came only to treat his son in Egypt.
Now the Sudanese people are extremely angry.
Online, for several days the “Egypt_is_not_a_Sister_of_ my_country” has been trending on twitter in Arabic.
I am reading now reports and seeing photos for allegedly shops in Khartoum with banners unwelcoming Egyptians to the level of saying Egyptians and dogs are not allowed.
Part of the Stand at the Egyptian embassy in Khartoum last Thursday 
We got a big Egyptian community in Sudan and already the Sudanese is biggest foreign community in Egypt.
It is more than sad and I think we need a rapid reaction to save our relations with the Sudanese people before the Sudanese regime.
I totally understand the Sudanese people’s anger, but I know that their media won’t escalate against Egypt in this way except after the Bashir regime’s approval. Either it seems that there is bigger issue between the two regimes in Cairo and Khartoum or El-Bashir is trying to show himself a defender for his people’s rights.
Needless to say , the Sudanese people have the right to be angry.
The problem is that the Ministry of interior never admits that it is wrong or issues a proper apologize.
By the way , this crisis which the Egyptian administration can look it to a trivial matter is affecting the talks about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam “GERD”.
The 10th meeting of “GERD” that was supposed to be held in Khartoum on Saturday were adjourned and sources in Khartoum told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the adjournment had to do with the current crisis between Egypt and Sudan.
The talks are stumbling already following the withdrawal of the Dutch Deltares company from the dam’s technical studies in September.
Ethiopia does not and won’t stop constructing the dam. According to sources , nearly 46% of the dam is finished.

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