Can privatization save Egypt’s railways? The Egyptian government is seeking partnerships with private and international companies to improve and manage the country’s dilapidated railway network. A paramedic speaks with a man next to an overturned passenger carriage at the scene of a railway accident in the city of Toukh in Egypt s central Nile Delta province of Qalyubiya on April 18, 2021. - AYMAN AREF/AFP via Getty Images
May 8, 2021
CAIRO After three train accidents in Egypt within one month left dozens of people wounded or dead, Egyptian Transportation Minister Kamel al-Wazir said in a press release April 21 that there are plans for a number of new trains on Egypt’s railways to be managed by international companies. The plan, he added, aims to provide better services and bring modern expertise to Egypt.
A picture taken during a guided tour organized by the Egypt’s State Information Services shows a mounted police officer on his horse in Tora prison, Cairo, 11 November 2019, MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP via Getty Images Five leading human rights organizations in the country call for the urgent implementation of seven necessary measures to end the unprecedented deterioration in human rights.
This statement was originally published on anhri.info on 4 May 2021.
Five Egyptian human rights organizations announced today a list of seven necessary, specific and urgent measures to stop the unprecedented deterioration that Egypt is witnessing in the human rights situation over the past years.
Global civil society statement on Myanmar
Format
We, the undersigned organizations, call on the United Nations Security Council to urgently impose a comprehensive global arms embargo on Myanmar to help prevent further violations of human rights against peaceful protesters and others opposing military rule. In recent weeks, Myanmar security forces have killed hundreds of people, including dozens of children, merely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Since the February 1, 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military junta has responded with increasing brutality to nationwide protests calling for the restoration of democratic civilian rule. As of May 4, security forces have killed at least 769 people, including 51 children as young as 6, and arbitrarily detained several thousand activists, journalists, civil servants, and politicians. Hundreds have been forcibly disappeared, the authorities unwilling to provide information on their well-being or where they
May 5, 2021 at 3:15 pm
Earlier this week, Egypt s Ministry of Health denied the news that covid cases had spiralled out of control in Sohag Governorate and reassured the public that there were enough hospital beds for everyone.
The announcement sparked outrage on social media – 14 people had died in one day according to one report. Doctors told stories of how they had to turn patients away as hospitals were full. Over three days, five doctors in their thirties all died from coronavirus.
Soaring infection rates in this province in Upper Egypt are one part of a nationwide problem as the country struggles to come to terms with its third wave of coronavirus as infection rates and the death toll soar.
May 5, 2021
CAIRO On May 2, Christians in Egypt celebrated Easter amid tensions caused by the statements of Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly in which he did not declare the day as an official holiday for state workers.
On April 28, Madbouly announced the official holidays for the beginning of May, saying, “The government decided to consider May 1 a holiday on the occasion of Labor Day, May 2 a day off to prevent overcrowding for fear of the spread of COVID-19 and May 3 as the Egyptian national holiday of Sham al-Nessim.” Sham al-Nessim celebrates spring.
After Madbouly did not name Easter as an official holiday, human rights activists and politicians said he had disregarded real demands, saying basic religious holidays should be official holidays for all citizens.