At least 26 people were injured as a result of a massive fire that broke out at dawn on Monday in the Security Directorate building in the Ismailia Governorate in Egypt, while the cause of the incident has not yet been determined.
At least 26 people were injured as a result of a massive fire that broke out on Monday at the headquarters of the Security Directorate in the Egyptian city of Ismailia, while all hospitals were placed on alert to receive potential victims.
The fire, the cause of which is not yet known, broke out at the headquarters of the Security Directorate before dawn. Pictures posted on the Internet showed huge flames consuming the floors of the building, which is considered the largest in the city.
The Egyptian Ministry of Health announced that 26 people were injured as a result of the accident, including 24 cases of suffocation and two cases of burns, while others received emergency services and left the site of the accident.
It confirmed that it sent 50 ambulances to the scene of the fire, while two military planes headed to Ismailia.
No deaths have been announced yet as a result of the fire, noting that members of the security forces are usually in this building at all hours of the day and night.
Eyewitnesses said that firefighters apparently faced difficulties at first to put out the fire, and after more than three hours, state television announced that the fire was under control.
Human rights organizations: The systematic use of torture in Egypt is a “crime against humanity”
London: On Monday, six international and Egyptian human rights organizations called on the United Nations to look into the “systematic use of torture” by the Egyptian authorities, considering that these practices constitute a “crime against humanity.”
The coalition of six organizations revealed a report submitted to the Committee against Torture on “the systematic use of torture by the authorities,” which “constitutes a crime against humanity in international law.”
The United Nations Committee against Torture is scheduled to examine on November 14 and 15 the extent of Egypt’s compliance with the Convention against Torture, to which it has acceded. Cairo regularly denies the practice of torture in prisons.
NGOs spoke of practices such as “beatings, use of electrical charges, sexual violence, and denial of health care and family visits.”
The organizations also condemned “the state policy made possible by the exceptional laws and anti-terrorism laws and the immunity” enjoyed by the security apparatus in the largest Arab country in terms of population.
She referred to the “suppression of civil society” in a country where there are thousands of prisoners of conscience, ten years after President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi took power in the country.
The organizations also criticized “the increase in targeting and torture of human rights activists and minorities such as the LGBT community in recent years.”
In recent years, Washington has frozen a small portion of its annual military aid to Egypt, which amounts to more than $1 billion, due to lack of respect for human rights. This year, it was decided to withhold only $85 million of this aid.
But the new Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the US Senate announced his support for freezing $235 million, the last tranche of military aid for the fiscal year 2022/2023, until progress is achieved in the field of human rights in Egypt.
The former head of that committee, Bob Menendez, appeared last Wednesday before a federal court in New York on corruption charges, including facilitating military aid to Egypt.
In recent months, the Egyptian President has released nearly a thousand prisoners of conscience, but observers believe it is an attempt to improve his image before the presidential elections scheduled for December.
Human rights organizations say that three times more people were arrested than were released during the same period.
That's disastrous
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