Missionary’s account of protests in Egypt

January 31, 2011

An anonymous missionary in Egypt has offered an eyewitness account of protests in Cairo to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

“The police have retreated from the center of Cairo,” he says. “The army only protects the buildings of importance such as the Parliament. There is an atmosphere that has never been seen before.”

“The police have disappeared,” he continues. “There are not even the officers that usually guard the Christian churches. There is an absence of security which, in part, has calmed the civic sense of the people. The majority of the demonstrators are youth, who have an almost joyous character to the protests.”

 

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Further information:

• “The police have disappeared from the centre of Cairo while demonstrators march again”: a missionary to Fides (Fides)
• Helicopters hover as protesters gather in heart of Cairo (CNN)
• Egyptians defy curfew; protests enter third day (Vatican Radio)