At least 41 people died in a fire in a church in Cairo (Egypt), Sunday August 14, announced the Egyptian Coptic Church on Facebook. The statement also mentions 14 injuries, citing sources within the Ministry of Health. This fire broke out during a mass celebrated in the Abou Sifine church, in the popular district of Imbaba.
The prosecution has opened an investigation and sent a team to the site to establish the reasons for the start of the fire. “The air conditioner in a classroom on the second floor of the building where the church is located broke down and released a large amount of smoke, which was the main cause of injuries and deaths”, explains the Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry of Health dispatched several dozen ambulances to him. “I mobilized all the State services so that all measures are taken”, responded President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi on his Facebook page. The latter spoke by telephone with Pope Tawadros II, is it written on the website of the presidency (in English), “to express his condolences”.
In the sprawling megalopolis of Cairo, where millions of Egyptians live in informal settlements, accidental fires are not uncommon. More generally, Egypt, endowed with dilapidated and poorly maintained infrastructure, regularly experiences deadly fires in its various provinces.
The Coptic Orthodox Church displayed itself more on the political scene, under the leadership of Tawadros II, a proclaimed partisan ofAbdel Fattah Al-Sisi. The latter is the first president of Egypt to attend the Coptic Christmas mass every year, while his predecessors sent representatives. Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi recently appointed a Coptic judge to head the Constitutional Court for the first time in history.
The Egyptian Copts form the largest Christian community in the Arab world: they represent 10 to 15 people, out of 103 million inhabitants in Egypt. They consider themselves kept out of many positions and deplore very restrictive legislation for the construction of churches, and much more liberal for mosques. Coptic human rights activist Patrick Zaki recently spent 22 months in detention for “spreading false information” over an article exposing violations of the rights of Christians in Egypt.
The Copts suffered reprisals from Islamists, particularly after the 2013 overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi. Churches, schools and homes were then burned down.