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Egypt Reports Two Train Accidents within 24 hours

Sohag train accident last March (AFP)
Sohag train accident last March (AFP)
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Egypt Reports Two Train Accidents within 24 hours

Sohag train accident last March (AFP)
Sohag train accident last March (AFP)

Dozens were injured in a train crash in Alexandria, less than 24 hours after another train accident killed two and injured six Egyptians in Cairo.

The Egyptian prosecution is investigating the circumstances of the two accidents.

The Railways Authority said in a statement that the Alexandria-Cairo train crashed with a moving tractor number 3219 while it was leaving platform 8 at the Alexandria Station.

The train driver and his assistant were apprehended and transferred to public prosecution.

The ministry of health said that 40 persons were injured in the accident.

The Authority also announced on Monday that a train in a Cairo suburb collided with two buses parked dangerously close to the train tracks. The driver was unable to stop the train, which led to a collision with one of the buses, killing two and injuring six others.

During April and March, Egypt witnessed several train accidents that killed and injured several persons. The Cairo-Mansoura train accident resulted in 23 deaths and 139 injuries, and in Minya al-Qamh a train derailed killing 14 people.

In April, Two trains collided in Sohag in Upper Egypt, killing 20 people and injuring about two hundred others. The Public Prosecution charged railway employees and drivers with "negligence and drug abuse", as part of efforts to uncover the circumstances of the accident.

The Public Prosecutor, Counselor Hamada El-Sawi, ordered an urgent investigation into the incident of a train collision with two buses in Helwan.

Meanwhile, Head of Parliament's Transport Committee MP Alaa Abed said that the committee is following up with the Ministry of Transportation to uncover the details of the accidents.

The Chairman added that the committee is awaiting technical reports to identify the causes of the two accidents, noting that it will hold an urgent meeting to discuss the incidents while taking the necessary measures.

He asserted that if the investigations of the public prosecution proved that the collisions were caused by human error, the committee will demand severe punishments.

Abed praised the state agencies that helped in solving most of the problems in record time and the speedy response in transporting the injured to hospitals.

He also lauded the security officials and local development agencies for removing the rubble in record time.

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Arab World

Sudanese Stakeholders Hold Roundtable Talks in Geneva

A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
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Sudanese Stakeholders Hold Roundtable Talks in Geneva

A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)

Geneva has hosted a third “roundtable” of meetings involving Sudanese political and civil groups aimed at bridging the gap between the country’s warring parties. These talks, coordinated by the French organization Promediation, follow similar meetings held previously in Cairo and Geneva. The primary goals are to negotiate a ceasefire and facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians.

The two-day meetings, which began on Monday, include representatives from the Coordination of Democratic Civil Forces (Tagadum), the pro-army Democratic Bloc coalition, and armed movements aligned with the bloc. However, some groups have announced their boycott of the meetings.

The Democratic Bloc has shown conflicting stances on attending the Geneva talks. Mohammed Zakaria, spokesperson for the bloc and a member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), announced his group’s decision not to participate.

Omar Khalafallah, a leader in the Democratic Unionist Party and another bloc spokesperson, refuted Zakaria’s statement, insisting that the bloc would attend the meetings to promote a national vision.

A source within the Democratic Bloc told Asharq Al-Awsat that the meetings revealed significant internal divisions in the coalition. The JEM, led by current Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim, appears to be charting its own course, which the source described as a form of defection.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Sharif Mohammed Osman, a leader in Tagadum and the political secretary of the Sudanese Congress Party, explained that the meetings seek to achieve consensus on ending the war through negotiated solutions, starting with a humanitarian truce to ensure aid delivery and the opening of safe corridors.

These measures are considered preliminary steps toward a ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the conflict, he underlined.

A wide array of civilian leaders are participating in the talks, including key figures from Tagadum, such as Sudanese Congress Party leader Omar Al-Dukair, Federal Gathering Party leader Babiker Faisal, and head of the Sudan Liberation Movement – Transitional Council Al-Hadi Idris.

Osman expressed optimism that the participants would issue a unified final statement addressing the peaceful resolution of the war and agreeing on a humanitarian truce to facilitate aid delivery.

In October, Cairo hosted a similar meeting, which resulted in a final statement signed by the participating groups, except for the Sudan Liberation Movement – Minni Minnawi faction and the JEM – Jibril Ibrahim faction, which refused to endorse the Cairo declaration despite attending the discussions.

Promediation, a French organization supported by the French and Swiss foreign ministries, has played a consistent role in Sudanese affairs. Since June 2022, it has organized roundtable discussions, initially focusing on negotiations between Darfuri armed movements before expanding its scope to include Sudanese political and civil forces in the wake of the war.