Egypt church fire leaves at least 41 dead, 14 injured

One fire that began during a mass this Sunday, 14, in a Coptic church in a popular neighborhood of Cairo killed 41 people, affecting the largest Christian community in the Middle East, with between 10 and 15 million faithful in the Egypt. “The air conditioning in a classroom on the second floor of the building where the church is located suffered a breakdown and released a large amount of smoke, which was the main cause of deaths and injuries,” explained the Interior Ministry. The Egyptian Coptic Church reported “41 dead and 14 wounded”, citing “Health Ministry sources”, in a statement posted on its Facebook account. The incident took place at the Abou Sifine church in the popular neighborhood of Imbaba, named after Saint Mercury of Caesarea, revered by the Copts. One of the fire trucks took up almost the entire width of the church street in this densely populated neighborhood on the left bank of the Nile. The church is on the ground floor of the building, which also houses a center for social services.

“Look for the children”

Reda Ahmed, a resident of the neighborhood and a neighbor of the church, said that “the neighbors organized themselves to look for the children”. But, she told AFP, “those who left could not return because the fire got too big.” The fire was later brought under control, officials said. A little further on, Father Farid Fahmy, religious officiating at the nearby church of Mar Yemina, said that “the fire started because of a generator turned on after a power outage and that it was overloaded”. The Public Ministry announced that it had opened an investigation and sent a team to the scene, while the Ministry of Health indicated that it had sent dozens of ambulances. “I have mobilized all state services to ensure that all measures are taken,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi reacted on his Facebook account. Sissi also announced that he “offered his condolences over the phone” to Coptic Pope Tawadros II, head of the Christian community in Egypt since 2012.

The Coptic Orthodox Church became more visible on the political scene under the leadership of Tawadros II, an outspoken supporter of Sisi, Egypt’s first president to attend Coptic Christmas Mass every year, while his predecessors sent representatives. In the megalopolis of Cairo, where millions of Egyptians live in informal settlements, accidental fires are not uncommon. More generally, Egypt, endowed with precarious and poorly maintained infrastructure, regularly suffers deadly fires in its various provinces. In March 2021, at least 20 people died in a fire at a textile factory on the eastern outskirts of Cairo. In 2020, two hospital fires claimed the lives of fourteen Covid-19 patients.

Though numerous, Copts consider themselves underrepresented in politics and in public office and lament legislation that is too restrictive for church building and far more liberal for mosques. The matter is sensitive, and Coptic human rights activist Patrick Zaki recently spent 22 months in prison for “spreading false information” about an article exposing violations of Christian rights in Egypt. Copts have also suffered reprisals from Islamists, notably after Sisi’s 2013 overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, with churches, schools and houses torched. Sisi recently appointed for the first time in history a Coptic judge to head the Constitutional Court.

*With AFP