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, whose origin has not yet been clarified, broke out during a mass celebrated in the Abou Sifine church, in the popular district of Imbaba.
The prosecution opened an investigation and sent a team to the site to establish the reasons for the start of the fire, while the Ministry of Health indicated that it had dispatched several dozen ambulances. “I have mobilized all the State services so that all measures are taken”reacted President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi on his Facebook page. The latter spoke by telephone with Pope Tawadros II, it is 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.
The Copts form the largest Christian community in the Middle East, with 10 to 15 of the 103 million Egyptians. 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 Christian rights in Egypt.
The Copts suffered reprisals from Islamists, particularly following the 2013 overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi. Churches, schools and homes had been burned down. Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, the first president of Egypt to attend the Coptic Christmas Mass every year, recently appointed a Coptic judge to head the Constitutional Court for the first time in history.