The 2019 Egyptian protests were mass protests in Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta and other cities on 20, 21 and 27 September 2019 in which the protestors called for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to be removed from power. Security forces responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and, , arbitrary arrests had been made, based on data from the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, among which 111 were minors according to Amnesty International and the Belady Foundation. Prominent arrestees included human rights lawyer Mahienour el-Massry, journalist and former leader of the Constitution Party Khaled Dawoud and two professors of political science at Cairo University, Hazem Hosny and Hassan Nafaa. The wave of arrests was the biggest in Egypt since Sisi formally became president in 2014.
Human Rights Watch called for all those arrested for peacefully expressing their opinions to be released immediately. Amnesty International described the Sisi government being "shaken to its core" by the 20–21 September protests and that the authorities had "launched a full-throttle clampdown to crush demonstrations and intimidate activists, journalists and others into silence". Two thousand people, including Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) representatives, protested in Khartoum on 26 September in support of Waleed Abdelrahman Hassan, a Sudanese anti-Islamist student detained by Egyptian authorities, who gave a forced confession on MBC Masr television. The SPA stated, "the era when Sudanese citizens were humiliated inside or outside their country has gone and will never return". The Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned the Egyptian ambassador and Waleed Abdelrahman Hassan was freed on 2 October 2019.
A massive police clampdown took place around Tahrir Square and across Egypt on 27 September, together with pro-Sisi rallies of government employees organised by the National Security Agency, and anti-Sisi protests on Warraq Island on the Nile, in Giza, in Helwan, in Qus, and in the Luxor, Aswan Minya and Sohag Governorates. On 3 November 2019, parliamentarian Ahmed Tantawi made online and parliamentary proposals for Sisi to step down in 2022 rather than stand for re-election in 2024.
Background
Mass protests in the Egyptian revolution of 2011 led to the demission of President Hosni Mubarak, the 2012 Egyptian presidential election won by Mohamed Morsi, the 2012–2013 Egyptian protests against the Morsi presidency, the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état which overthrew Morsi, the August 2013 Rabaa massacre by the security forces and army led by general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and an authoritarian government under Sisi, who was elected president with no serious opponents in 2014 and 2018. Protests against the imprisonment of ordinary civilians led to mass demonstrations at the beginning of the year. The first wave of mass protests were from February–June. Strikes against electricity, bread and corn and rice prices, fuel price hike, economy, shortage of food and water and oil. It led to nothing achieved.
Online anti-Sisi videos Starting on 2 September 2019, Mohamed Ali (also: Aly), an Egyptian construction contractor living in exile in Spain, claimed on online social networks that he had worked in the construction industry for 15 years under army contracts, building five villas for colleagues of Sisi and a palace for Sisi in a military camp. Ali accused Sisi of wasting public funds and "[taking] low-level corruption to a new level". Ali's videos outline specific incidents and directly accuse well-known military individuals, including Major-Generals Kamel al-Wazir and Essam al-Kholy. Egyptian authorities ran a media campaign attacking Ali. According to Said and Mamdouh writing in Mada Masr, the governmental campaign "did not refute the substance of [Ali's] claims."
After the first week of wide circulation of Ali's videos, Sisi denied the allegations at a session of the "National Youth Conference. Sisi stated that "all the intelligence agencies told me please do not talk about it. ... I told them, what's between me and the people is trust." Within a few hours of Sisi's speech, Ali posted two hours of new videos, referring to Sisi's son Mahmoud and the Sinai insurgency.
Mosaad Abu Fagr, a Sinai activist in exile, then released two videos in which he claimed that the Egyptian authorities refused an offer by North Sinai tribal leaders to remove the terrorist cells within a few weeks, and that he was asked by the tribal leaders to publish that information. Abu Fagr stated that Sisi cooperated with drug smugglers and dealers instead of working with the tribes and that Sisi and his son Mahmoud have business interests in smuggling between the Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Abu Fagr also accused the Egyptian security forces of the "wiping out of entire villages" along the border with Gaza.
Lawyer Mohamed Hamdy Younes stated that he would request the Attorney-General to investigate Ali's accusations. He was then arrested and charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation. Former army officer and lawyer Ahmed Sarhan circulated a video supporting most of Ali's claims, calling for Younes to be released and making new accusations against people close to Sisi. Sarhan's video was viewed half a million times.
A masked man circulated a video claiming that he had sensitive information about Sisi, that Ali's videos contain "factual information about the corruption in the upper ranks of the Armed Forces" and that "the events happening" constitute "retaliation" by the Mukhabarat against Military Intelligence, which was headed by Sisi until 2012. In another video, a masked man claiming to be an intelligence officer stated that Sisi changed commanders frequently in order to avoid any becoming too powerful and that Sisi coordinated intelligence information closely with Israel. Former Air Force pilot Hany Sharaf and former state security officer Hesham Sabry then circulated videos highly critical of Sisi.
Wael Ghonim, who played a key online role in sparking the 2011 Egyptian revolution and lives in the United States, posted videos similar to the others, adding claims that Sisi's son Mahmoud played a strong role in managing Egyptian "daily politics". A representative of the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C. telephoned Ghonim, asking him to stop criticising the Egyptian authorities, in exchange for which he would receive a payment and a guarantee to be able to "return to Egypt safely". Ghonim refused, and a few days later Ghonim's brother Hazem was arrested in Cairo. Ghonim interpreted this as a kidnapping in revenge for Ghonim having refused to remain silent.
Ali was described in mid-September by Mohamed Elmasry of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies as being "probably the most popular man in Egypt" with millions of viewers of his online videos and millions of people using Ali's anti-Sisi hashtags. Elmasry described Ali as "a legitimate threat to the el-Sisi government."
On 21 September, following the previous day's protests, Ali called for a "million-man march" to fill all the "major squares" in Egypt on the following Friday, 27 September. Ali stated, "This is a people's revolution... We have to link up together as one... and organise going down to the major squares."
Late September 2019 protests 20 and 21 September On Friday 20 September 2019, in response to Ali's call for anti-Sisi protests, two thousand people, mostly young, in Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta, Suez, Kafr El Sheikh and four other Egyptian cities on 20 September 2019 carried out street protests calling for Sisi to be removed from power.
Chants included "rise up, fear not, Sisi must go" and "the people demand the regime's fall".
Street protests continued in Cairo, Suez, Giza and El Mahalla El Kubra on 21 September. In Suez, with 200 demonstrators, teargas, rubber bullets and live bullets were shot at protestors. The tear gas spread to "a few" kilometres from the zone of the protest where a resident felt the gas making her nose feel as if it were burning.
27 September On 26 September, exiled former presidential candidate Ayman Nour stated that the massive scale of the arrests showed that the Sisi government was "terrified" and that he expected protests to grow, with the fear barrier having been broken down and the mass arrests provoking anger in the context of socioeconomic difficulties. On the same day, actor Amr Waked tweeted to seven million followers that "Sisi is done ... it is over for him and anyone who supports him now will be making a huge mistake."
Anti-Sisi On 27 September itself, 1000 to 2000 people on Warraq Island on the Nile next to Cairo protested against Sisi and were attacked by police using tear gas. One of the slogans chanted by protestors was, "No matter how, we'll bring Sisi down". Using their rifles, police "beat the hell" out of six of the Warraq protestors.
A protest of 24 people took place in Helwan in the Cairo Governorate in front of the al-Istiqama mosque. Police fired shots in the air in response.
Anti-Sisi protests took place in Qus in Qena, where they were dispersed by police, in Luxor Governorate, in Aswan Governorate, in Minya Governorate, and in Sohag Governorate.
A protest of 70 people took place in Giza and was dispersed by police.
Clampdown on protests Police organised "a huge show of force" in central Cairo and other Egyptian cities, with Tahrir Square heavily policed and four metro stations close to Tahrir Square were closed. All roads leading to Tahrir Square were blocked and checkpoints were established on 6th October Bridge, which had been a key route to Tahrir Square during the 2011 Egyptian revolution, and 15th May Bridge.
Instructions received by the Ministry of Interior had been to respond to demonstrations with limited force for "no more than a few minutes" and to use all available violent measures against street protests.
Pro-Sisi Pro-Sisi rallies were organised on 27 September with the National Security Agency instructing health, education, youth and sports ministries and agencies and oil companies to send their employees to the rallies. State companies bussed employees to a major road east of the centre of Cairo and to Alexandria. Free meals were given to a group of families from Beni Mazar in Minya Governorate who organised 30 buses to participate in the pro-Sisi Cairo rallies. The National Security Agency warned independent Members of Parliament from talking about the "ongoing events or the discussions around Sisi".
Arrests and harassment In response to the first reports of arrests, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for Egypt to respect the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which it is legally bound, guaranteeing freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. HRW called for the Egyptian security services to follow the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials by using "non-violent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms".
Arrests for the 20 and 21 September protests were estimated as 500 by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) that published a list of the names of arrestees. Arrests were earlier reported by the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) for 12 towns including Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Suez and towns in Dakahlia Governorate, Qalyubia Governorate and Kafr el-Sheikh. ECRF stated that it had created an "emergency room" to provide support in relation to the sudden surge in arrests.
Human rights lawyer Mahienour el-Massry was arrested by three plainclothes officers in front of the Supreme State Security Prosecution headquarters in Cairo while telephoning to a friend Noha Kamal on 22 September. She screamed to Kamal, "They're arresting me. I am being taken away" and was taken away in a microbus.