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Egypt Accuses Brotherhood of Exploiting COVID-19 to Distort State’s Image

Egyptian supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood protesting in Cairo, Egypt on 11 November 2016 [Apaimages]
Egyptian supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood protesting in Cairo, Egypt on 11 November 2016 [Apaimages]
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Egypt Accuses Brotherhood of Exploiting COVID-19 to Distort State’s Image

Egyptian supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood protesting in Cairo, Egypt on 11 November 2016 [Apaimages]
Egyptian supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood protesting in Cairo, Egypt on 11 November 2016 [Apaimages]

Muslim Brotherhood (MB) members are spreading rumors on social media to question the integrity of measures taken by the Egyptian government to contain the COVID-19, security experts and researchers in fundamentalist movements told Asharq Al-Awsat on Thursday.

“The Brotherhood is trying to exploit the government’s preoccupation with fighting the virus to achieve political targets by stirring confusion and discord among Egyptians,” said former Assistant to the Minister of Interior Farouk al-Makrahy.

Meanwhile, a security source accused a pro-MB television channel of airing a video from last year, showing Christian celebrations and accusing the State of not taken legal measures against them similar to the procedures taken against the violations of some mosque preachers.

Few days before this video, Egypt’s Interior Ministry accused the MB of “instigating the prevention of burial of a female doctor who died of coronavirus” in Egypt’s north-eastern governorate, Dakahlia.

The ministry described people who had participated in the incident as “outlaws,” and it accused them of “responding to rumors and incitement made by the Brotherhood group under the pretext of preventing the spread of the virus.”

Khaled Zaakarani, a researcher in fundamentalist movements, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The Brotherhood is working to provoke panic among residents by questioning the government’s efforts to contain the virus.”

He said MB members were spreading false news on social media concerning the number of COVID-19 infected people in the country.

Lately, Bahgat Saber, a New York-based Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood activist, said in a video he uploaded to his Facebook page that any Egyptian who has flu-like symptoms or coronavirus should deliberately go to Egyptian police stations, public prosecution offices, courthouses, embassies, and consulates and shake hands with government officials as a revenge against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's government.

“Rumors and videos spread by the Muslim Brotherhood would never find an echo among Egyptians,” stressed Makrahy.

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Arab World

Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
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Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP

The Sudanese army said Saturday it had retaken a key state capital south of Khartoum from rival Rapid Support Forces who had held it for the past five months.

The Sennar state capital of Sinja is a strategic prize in the 19-month-old war between the regular army and the RSF as it lies on a key road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.

It posted footage on social media that it said had been filmed inside the main base in the city.

"Sinja has returned to the embrace of the nation," the information minister of the army-backed government, Khaled al-Aiser, said in a statement.

Aiser's office said armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had travelled to the city of Sennar, 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, on Saturday to "inspect the operation and celebrate the liberation of Sinja", AFP reported.

The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures.

Human rights groups have said that those who were unwilling or unable to leave have faced months of arbitrary violence by RSF fighters.

Sinja teacher Abdullah al-Hassan spoke of his "indescribable joy" at seeing the army enter the city after "months of terror".

"At any moment, you were waiting for militia fighters to barge in and beat you or loot you," the 53-year-old told AFP by telephone.

Both sides in the Sudanese conflict have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.

The RSF has also been accused of summary executions, systematic sexual violence and rampant looting.

The RSF control nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur as well as large swathes of Kordofan in the south. They also hold much of the capital Khartoum and the key farming state of Al-Jazira to its south.

Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 11 million -- creating what the UN says is the world's largest displacement crisis.

From the eastern state of Gedaref -- where more than 1.1 million displaced people have sought refuge -- Asia Khedr, 46, said she hoped her family's ordeal might soon be at an end.

"We'll finally go home and say goodbye to this life of displacement and suffering," she told AFP.