Over 100 Coptic Christians were killed in 2017 in a wave of deadly attacks by militants belonging to, or inspired by, the Islamic State group, which has vowed to “wipe them out”. Egypt’s Copts, who account for around 10 per cent of the population, were also targeted in 2013, after they were perceived as supporting the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government. Scores of churches across the country were attacked and burned.
Egyptian Copts have welcomed Pope Francis’ “insistence” that his visit to Cairo this week go ahead despite the recent attacks on two churches that killed 45 worshippers. The head of the Catholic Church will arrive in Cairo on Friday and visit President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar […]
A woman whose husband died intercepting one of the suicide bombers who attacked churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday has told Egyptian TV she completely forgives his killer, causing the news anchor to exclaim that Copts “are made from a different substance”. Naseem Faheem, the guard at St. Mark’s Cathedral […]
One of the gunmen involved in the 18 April attack at a checkpoint close to St Catherine’s monastery, Mount Sinai, was wearing a belt of explosives that failed to detonate, reports Coptic news site Watani. The man – named by Egypt’s Interior Ministry as Abu-Faris al-Maghrabi – was shot dead […]
One policeman was killed and four others injured when gunmen opened fire near St. Catherine’s monastery in Egypt on Tuesday (18 April), reports Reuters. The attack, at a police checkpoint less than a kilometre from the monastery, was later claimed by the Islamic State group. It came a week after […]
An Egyptian Christian boy murdered on Holy Thursday (13 April) was killed by Islamic extremists hoping to further intimidate Christians in the run up to Easter, say his family. Allam Bashay Gabriel found his 16-year-old son, Gamal, with his throat slit and lying in a pool of blood, in Qai […]
Christians in Egypt celebrated Easter amid tight security and in a sombre mood. While worshippers gathered in both Alexandria and Tanta, in the churches that were attacked last Sunday, authorities made a number of arrests in connection with other possible planned attacks. However, violence continued in Kom El-Loufy, in the […]
One of the priests at the Mar Girgis (St George) Cathedral in Tanta, one of two churches attacked by suicide bombers on Palm Sunday, says his church will not hold its usual Easter Day celebrations as a mark of respect towards the families affected. “There will not be any festivities, only […]
As Egyptian society slowly recovers from the shock of the twin suicide bomb attacks on two Coptic churches on Palm Sunday, the real picture of the devastation caused is starting to emerge. The victims have now been buried, while dozens of wounded Christians remain in hospital – some in a […]
As Egypt’s Coptic Church lays to rest the victims of the Palm Sunday bomb attacks on two churches, voices from the Muslim community in the country have condemned the attacks and Muslim citizens have lined up to donate blood for the injured. Writing a blog for the website Patheos, Khwaia […]
Egypt’s Christians are in mourning and profound shock after yesterday’s twin suicide bombing attacks on churches packed for Palm Sunday, which left at least 49 people dead and more than 110 injured. The Coptic Pope, Tawadros II, narrowly escaped injury, having just celebrated Mass in one of the cathedrals that […]