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The week’s death toll reached seven on Thursday, after two more protesters were shot dead in North Sinai, in the third day of nationwide anti-government protests.
The nationwide protests, which are calling for democracy, the ouster of President Hosny Mubarak and more employment opportunities, are some of the largest since Mubarak took power some 30 years ago.
Internet access was crippled on Thursday night and certain websites had been blocked entirely, including international news sites, Twitter, Facebook and Google’s Gmail email service. Text messaging had also been blocked.
Egypt’s protesters hope to emulate the Tunisian uprising that toppled president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, on January 14, after nearly 23 years in power.
But the calls have been met with violence. The two protesters in North Sinai died in an exchange of fire between protesters and riot police. The region is a swathe of land populated mostly by armed Bedouins, who were also calling for the release of hundreds of prisoners arrested in security sweeps in recent years.
New protests continued to pop up across the country, with the most recent reported late Thursday on Haram Street, one of Cairo’s main avenues. Reports put more than 1,000 protesters at the scene.
It was the first time there had been protests in this area, one of Cairo’s poorer neighbourhoods. Security forces tried to rush to the area, but were confounded in their attempts as the protesters moved to block traffic.
Meanwhile, Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei arrived in Cairo on Thursday in the face of widespread criticism that he called for protests from his residence in Vienna and only travelled to Egypt after three days of demonstrations.
He said “change will not come overnight”, describing it as “a process.” He also said he plans to take part in protests set to take place after mid-day Friday prayers.
And he gave credit to young protesters for demonstrating on Tuesday and said “a hand is stretched, but the regime needs to understand that change is absolutely needed.” “There is no going back,” he said of the protests.
The nationwide protests, which are calling for democracy, the ouster of President Hosny Mubarak and more employment opportunities, are some of the largest since Mubarak took power some 30 years ago.
Internet access was crippled on Thursday night and certain websites had been blocked entirely, including international news sites, Twitter, Facebook and Google’s Gmail email service. Text messaging had also been blocked.
Egypt’s protesters hope to emulate the Tunisian uprising that toppled president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, on January 14, after nearly 23 years in power.
But the calls have been met with violence. The two protesters in North Sinai died in an exchange of fire between protesters and riot police. The region is a swathe of land populated mostly by armed Bedouins, who were also calling for the release of hundreds of prisoners arrested in security sweeps in recent years.
New protests continued to pop up across the country, with the most recent reported late Thursday on Haram Street, one of Cairo’s main avenues. Reports put more than 1,000 protesters at the scene.
It was the first time there had been protests in this area, one of Cairo’s poorer neighbourhoods. Security forces tried to rush to the area, but were confounded in their attempts as the protesters moved to block traffic.
Meanwhile, Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei arrived in Cairo on Thursday in the face of widespread criticism that he called for protests from his residence in Vienna and only travelled to Egypt after three days of demonstrations.
He said “change will not come overnight”, describing it as “a process.” He also said he plans to take part in protests set to take place after mid-day Friday prayers.
And he gave credit to young protesters for demonstrating on Tuesday and said “a hand is stretched, but the regime needs to understand that change is absolutely needed.” “There is no going back,” he said of the protests.