Egypt marks 5th anniversary of uprising against Mubarak

A man holding an iron cage with an effigy and a portrait of deposed President Mohamed Mursi during the fifth anniversary of the uprising in Cairo, Egypt, January 25, 2016.

In the build-up to the fifth anniversary, the government raised the security level and arrested a number of activists after the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and critics of President al-Sisi called for protest movements against the Egyptian President, deemed worse than Mubarak, to celebrate the anniversary.

The Islamist party, the Muslim Brotherhood, would later lose power in Egypt, toppled by current President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in July 2013.

In January and February of 2011, Egyptians took to the streets in massive numbers to protest corruption and police brutality under the regime of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.

In late 2013, the government designated the Brotherhood a “terrorist organization”, accusing it of carrying out attacks against Egyptian security forces.

The protestors flowed to Tahrir Square in Cairo as the movement grew and grew and on February 11, Mubarak resigned.

A security source said police killed two militants in an apartment in Sixth October City to the west of the capital.

Brotherhood officials in exile and a pro-Morsi group had called on Egyptians to launch a new revolution, but major demonstrations failed to materialise.

Ahead of the anniversary, Mr El Sisi vowed a firm response to any unrest and also lavishly praised the police. The words were backed by a neon-green marijuana-leaf print. The young man was in his twenties, and for a moment I wondered if the revolution had swerved onto familiar territory-I have a home in Colorado-but when I asked if the young man knew the meaning of the shirt’s message, he shook his head. In an emotional ceremony on Saturday, he posthumously awarded medals to almost 40 policemen killed by militants.

The April 6 youth movement, for its part, which had played a leading role in the 2011 uprising, announced Sunday evening that it would not take part in planned demonstrations.

Mr EL Sisi still faces serious challenges, including reviving a sluggish economy as investments and tourist revenues fall, and a deadly insurgency led by the Egyptian affiliate of ISIL. We are building together a modern, developed and civilian state that upholds the values of democracy and freedom. He said the two were accused of killing a policeman weeks earlier.

The 2011 Egyptian revolution began with protests marking January 25, which is officially designated “Police Day” in Egypt. Security personnel are out in force and only a handful of regime supporters were allowed to hold a low-key celebration.

In an interview published Monday, Egypt’s best-known secular prisoner, blogger and activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, spoke of his despair, saying he regretted not leaving the country when he could have in 2013.

He was already serving a three-year prison sentence for organising protests without a permit.

Another icon of the uprising, Wael Ghoneim, urged fellow “revolutionaries” not to despair.

“There should be a framework of responsible freedom that prevents it from turning into destructive chaos, which undermines the fundamentals of the state and the people’s resources”, he said. “Don’t despair. Don’t be silent”.

Zyad Elelaimy, one of the leaders of the protests from five years ago, said the regime’s attitude toward the anniversary of the revolution shows it is in a state of confusion and panic.