Naguib Mahfouz by Youssef Nabil
QALYOUB, Egypt, Aug 21 (Reuters) – A collision between two trains killed 80 people and injured 131 on Monday in a Nile Delta town north of Cairo, a security source said, in Egypt’s worst rail disaster since 2002.
About 25 ambulances rushed to the crash site, along with hundreds of bystanders and relatives anxious for news of passengers who might have been killed or injured, a witness said, adding that damage to the trains was extensive.
The accident took place at about 7.30 a.m. (0430 GMT) near the town of Qalyoub, about 20 km (12 miles) north of Cairo, official sources told the state news agency MENA. They said one of the drivers had apparently ignored railway traffic signals.
A Reuters photographer at the scene said one of the trains had derailed and was on its side. It had split into four parts and there were signs of a fire, he said.
MENA quoted official Egyptian sources as saying the death toll was at least 20. The crash happened when one train ran into the rear of another, causing one of them to derail and overturn.
This will remind a lot of people of the Al Ayyat train disaster of 2002, the worst in Egypt’s history, in which at least 360 people died, caused the resignation of the transport minister at the time and discredited the Atef Ebeid government. I wonder if there will be an investigation into what has been done since Al Ayyat to improve train safety.
Update: Just saw a French AFP news report saying the accident occurred after a collision of two trains that were on the same track and had not respected signals.
Les deux trains circulaient sur la même voie en direction de la capitale, l’un en provenance de Mansoura (130 km au nord du Caire) et l’autre de Benha (50 kms au nord). Selon les premiers éléments de l’enquête, l’un des trains n’a pas respecté un feu de signalisation, percutant violemment l’arrière du second. Les deux trains ne sont plus qu’un enchevêtrement de ferraille, autour duquel des dizaines de secouristes s’affairent pour tenter de retrouver des survivants, selon une journaliste de l’AFP. Deux wagons ont basculé sur le bas-côté de la voie. Des ambulances passent sirènes hurlantes, pour transporter les victimes dans sept hôpitaux de la région. Parmi les passagers figuraient des paysans ainsi que des fonctionnaires, dont de nombreux policiers, qui se rendaient au Caire pour y travailler, a affirmé un policier, Mamdouh Amer. Le 1er mai, 45 Egyptiens avaient été blessés lors d’une collision entre deux trains dans le gouvernorat de Charquiya, au nord du Caire. Fin février, 20 personnes avaient également été blessées dans un accident similaire près d’Alexandrie (nord).
The article included a statement by the deceased family and contact numbers, which when I tried, I could not get through.
I am extremely troubled by this, and can not validate what happened. The Free Copts have previously reported on some serious abuses that did indeed happen, but there were other cases which they blew out of proportion. I don’t know if this case is true, but if so, then one can safely say we are still living in the Medieval Ages. Please if anyone has more information about this subject, or if you managed to get through to the family on the phone numbers, fill us in.
Related posting:
Li-Beirut: Cairo activists needed for solidarity campaign
For the majority of Arabs, Hezbollah won, Israel is no longer the undefeatable army
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Babies have been named “Hezbollah” and “Nasrallah.” Even some die-hard secularists are praising the Shiite fundamentalist militia in the wake of its cease-fire with Israel _ saying its fighters restored their feelings of honor and dignity.
But behind the outpouring of support for Hezbollah in recent days, some in the Middle East are increasingly worried about the rising power of religious extremists.
“The last thing I expected is to fall in love with a turbaned cleric,” wrote Howeida Taha, a strongly secular columnist in Egypt, writing in the Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper this week. “I don’t like them, and of course they will never like somebody like me … (but) I feel I’ve been searching for Nasrallah with my eyes, heart and mind. I feel Nasrallah lives within me.”
Yet, she added, “No matter how much we admire Hezbollah’s fighters’ bravery, the last thing we want to see is the rise of a religious party in Egypt.”
Around the Arab world, Hezbollah was widely seen as the victor in the 34-day war with Israel, because of the tougher-than-expected resistance it put up under Israel’s relentless bombardment and heavy ground assaults _ and because it survived an onslaught that Israel had initially wanted to cripple the guerrilla group.
As a result, Hezbollah and its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, have emerged as popular heroes.
“Thanks be to God and to Hezbollah,” read the banner of an opposition independent weekly, Al-Destour, in Egypt on Wednesday.
More than 120 babies born during the war have been named after Nasrallah in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, says the official registrar there. In Gaza City, there are at least a dozen newborns named Hezbollah, (Party of God) Nasrallah (Victory from God) or Hassan.
On an Islamist web site for youth, based in Egypt, many women wrote saying they would love to marry someone like Nasrallah.
“I want to marry one of Nasrallah’s three boys and dedicate myself to resistance and pride of my (Islamic) community,” said Noha Hussein, a university student in Cairo.
Necklaces and key chains with his image are now in style, the web site notes.
Much of the enthusiasm has come from finally seeing an Arab military force dig in against Israel.
Arab nations fought several wars with Israel _ in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, as well as Israel’s previous two invasions of Lebanon. The first three were heavy defeats for Arab armies, and though Egypt’s army saw dramatic successes in 1973, the battle had swung to Israel’s favor by the time it ended.
In the eyes of many Arabs, Hezbollah’s performance shook the Israeli military’s image of invulnerability.
“The Lebanese people may have lost a lot of economic and human resources …. but away from figures and calculations, they have achieved a lot of gains,” said Youssef al-Rashed, a columnist for the Kuwaiti daily Al-Anba.
“Its heroic resistance fighters have proven to the world that Lebanese borders are not open to Israeli tanks without a price,” he wrote Tuesday. “Lebanon was victorious in the battle of dignity and honor.”
Also, the image of a guerrilla force doing what a regular army could not has apparently deepened the popular resentment toward Arab governments.
“The crux of the problem in Lebanon is that a political movement became bigger than the state,” said Mamoun Fandy, the director of the Middle East program at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies. “The same syndrome _ a perceived lack of legitimacy of governments that are being challenged by armed political movements _ can be seen in many Arab and Muslim states. …. Their message is that movements can do what states failed to do, and can restore the honour that governments have squandered.”
Awni Shatarat, a Palestinian refugee from Baqaa camp, is among those who strongly view Hezbollah as victorious.
“Israel was defeated by a small group, which succeeded in demolishing the image of the undefeatable army,” he said.
But others are far more critical of Hezbollah and pessimistic about what the war might bring.
Jordan’s former information minister, Saleh Qallab, said Hezbollah’s new strength could now be turned against the anti-Syrian, pro-democracy movement that gained power in Lebanon last year _ “which means that a civil war is imminent in Lebanon, unless a miracle occurs.”
“Do we call this a victory?” he said.
JERUSALEM – Egypt has arrested a leader of a major domestic opposition group who allegedly confessed to plotting the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, an Egyptian official told the Galil Report.
The suspect, identified as Abed al-Munemhem Abu al-Futuh of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, allegedly admitted during interrogation to planning the coup. Cairo is withholding details.
Egyptian officials told the Galil Report investigators are focusing on a series of conversations al-Futuh had with Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Syria.
The plot was halted just days after Mahdi Akif, leader of the Brotherhood in Egypt, announced his group would train members in military tactics to fight alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon and to join Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip, which borders the Egyptian Sinai desert.
This must have started with some grain of truth (e.g. concern about Egyptian MB discussions with Syrian MB) but otherwise sounds completely preposterous. Especially since Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a leading “moderate” among the MB, has not been reported as arrested, unlike many of his colleagues.