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Global community mourns with Arab world after Egypt’s deadly Sohag train crash

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People gather around the wreckage of two trains that collided in the Tahta district of Sohag province on March 26, 2021. (AFP)
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People inspect the damage after two trains have collided near the city of Sohag, Egypt, March 26, 2021. (Reuters)
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People gather around the wreckage of two trains that collided in the Tahta district of Sohag province on March 26, 2021. (AFP)
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Updated 27 March 2021
Mohammed Abu Zaid
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Global community mourns with Arab world after Egypt’s deadly Sohag train crash

  • More than 30 people dead in massive train crash
  • King Salman, Crown Prince extend condolences to El-Sisi for crash victims
Updated 27 March 2021
Mohammed Abu Zaid

DUBAI/CAIRO: The Arab and global communities have offered their condolences to Egypt following the death of 32 people in the deadly train crash near the southern city of Sohag. There were also 165 people injured.

Rail traffic resumed Saturday, authorities said, a day after two trains collided.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent their condolences to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the families of those who were involved in the train collision.

Gulf countries Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE together with Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan also expressed their sadness following the tragic crash.

Pakistan similarly solidarity ‘with brotherly Egypt in this hour of grief.’

TV news network Al Arabiya published security camera footage which appears to have captured the moment the crash happened.

The blurred video shows one train coming to a standstill – seconds later it is hit by what appears to be a second train.

 

The British ambassador to Egypt, Geoffrey Adams, tweeted his condolences.

“Very sad to hear of the tragic train collision in Sohag today. My sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of those affected,” the envoy said.

El-Sisi vowed ‘deterrent punishment’ for the culprits of the deadly train collision, stressing determination to end a “pattern of such disasters.”

“Whoever caused this tragic accident, whether through negligence or corruption or other reasons, will face deterrent punishment with no exceptions, reluctance or deferment,” El-Sisi posted on his Facebook page.

According to Egypt’s railway authorities, the accident happened when “unknown individuals” activated the emergency brakes of a passenger train heading to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. Once that train had stopped, it was struck from behind by another train.

“The trains collided while going at not very high speeds, which led to the destruction of two carriages and (caused) a third to overturn,” a security source told Reuters. The two trains involved were the number 157 and the number 2011.

The collision occurred near Al-Sawamiah village in Sohag province in Upper Egypt — 460 kiometers from Cairo. Videos from the scene show the wrecked carriages with passengers trapped inside and surrounded by rubble. Bystanders carried bodies and laid them out on the ground near the site, AP reported.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly set up a crisis room at the Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center to monitor the situation, and to facilitate coordination between the concerned ministries and departments. He later visited the scene along with five ministers.

The public prosecutor ordered an urgent investigation. The train drivers have been taken in for questioning and a separate probe has been ordered by Transport Minister Kamel Al-Wazir. A security source said further details will be announced once the cause of the accident is confirmed.

Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mujahid said that, immediately after the incident, 36 ambulances had been dispatched to transport the injured to hospitals.

He added that the ministry has set up a crisis and emergency room in Sohag to ensure that the injured are taken care of and that there is no shortage of medical supplies.

Images captured by local media showed buckled train carriages derailed above a river.

El-Sisi earlier wrote on Twitter that he was monitoring the situation closely and that anyone responsible for the crash would be held to account.

“Anyone who caused this painful accident through negligence or corruption, or anything similar, must receive a deterrent punishment without exception or delay,” he tweeted.

"I have directed the prime minister and all agencies concerned to be present at the site of the accident, to continuously follow up, and to inform me of all developments and reports related to the situation … I extend my full condolences to the families of the victims,” he added. 

In March last year, at least 13 people were injured when two passenger trains collided in Cairo, triggering a brief suspension of rail services nationwide.

At the time rail managers blamed the crash on signals not functioning in bad weather.

And in February 2019, a train derailed and caught fire at Cairo's main railway station, killing at least 22 people and injuring 41, and prompting the transport minister, Hisham Arafat, to resign.

Topics: Egypt Train Crash

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30 killed in drone attack on hospital in Sudan’s Darfur: medical source

Updated 10 sec ago
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30 killed in drone attack on hospital in Sudan’s Darfur: medical source

Updated 10 sec ago
SUDAN: A drone attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in El-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region killed 30 people and injured dozens, a medical source said Saturday.
The bombing of the Saudi Hospital on Friday evening “led to the destruction” of the hospital’s emergency building, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation.
It was not immediately clear which of Sudan’s warring sides had launched the attack.
Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.
They have besieged El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, since May, but have not managed to claim the city, where army-aligned militias have repeatedly pushed them back.
Last week, they issued an ultimatum demanding army forces and allies leave the city by Wednesday afternoon in advance of an expected offensive.
Local activists have reported intermittent fighting since, including repeated artillery fire from the RSF on the famine-hit Abu Shouk displacement camp.
On Friday morning alone, heavy shelling killed eight people in the camp, according to civil society group the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees.
The United Nations has voiced alarm, calling on both parties to ensure the protection of the city’s civilian population — some two million people.
“The people of El-Fasher have suffered so much already from many months of senseless violence and brutal violations and abuses, particularly in the course of the prolonged siege of their city,” United Nations rights office spokesman Seif Magango said Wednesday.

France in communication to maintain Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire, Lebanese statement citing Macron says

Updated 25 January 2025
Reuters
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France in communication to maintain Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire, Lebanese statement citing Macron says

  • Aoun asked Macron to oblige Israel to implement the agreement to preserve stability
Updated 25 January 2025
Reuters

CAIRO: French President Emmanuel Macron told his new Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun in a phone call that he is in communication to maintain the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, according to a statement by the Lebanese President’s office on X.
Aoun asked Macron to oblige Israel to implement the agreement to preserve stability.
The phone call comes after the Israeli army on Saturday warned residents of dozens of Lebanese villages near the border against returning until further notice, a day after Israel said its forces would remain in south Lebanon beyond a Sunday deadline for their departure under the US-brokered ceasefire that ended last year’s war.

Topics: Lebanon Israel Lebanese President Joseph Aoun French President Emmanuel Macron

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70 freed and ‘deported’ Palestinian prisoners reach Egypt

Updated 25 January 2025
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70 freed and ‘deported’ Palestinian prisoners reach Egypt

  • According to Israeli list, more than 230 Palestinian prisoners to be released under the deal are serving life sentences
  • They will be permanently expelled from the Palestinian territories upon their release
Updated 25 January 2025
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CAIRO: Seventy Palestinian prisoners arrived aboard buses in Egypt Saturday after being released from Israel as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal, state-linked Egyptian media reported.
Al-Qahera News, which is linked to state intelligence, said the prisoners were those “deported” by Israel, adding they would be transferred to Egyptian hospitals for treatment.
According to a list previously made public by Israeli authorities, more than 230 Palestinian prisoners to be released under the deal are serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, and will be permanently expelled from the Palestinian territories upon their release.
Broadcasted footage on Saturday showed some of the prisoners, wearing grey tracksuits, disembarking from two buses on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.
After transiting in Egypt, the deported prisoners “will choose either Algeria, Turkiye or Tunisia” to reside, Amin Shuman, head of the Palestinian prisoners’ affairs committee, told AFP.
“It’s an indescribable feeling,” one of those released told Al-Qahera News, smiling and waving from the window of the bus.
The prisoners transferred from the Ktziot prison in Israel’s Negev desert into Egypt are part of a group of 200 prisoners released Saturday in exchange for four Israeli hostages freed by Hamas militants in Gaza.

Topics: War on Gaza

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Police kill a man who set himself on fire outside a Tunisian synagogue

Updated 25 January 2025
AP
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Police kill a man who set himself on fire outside a Tunisian synagogue

  • The man advanced toward a law enforcement officer while ablaze, and a second officer opened fire to protect his colleague
  • The officer was hospitalized with burns, as was a passerby
Updated 25 January 2025
AP

TUNIS: A man set himself on fire in front of the Grand Synagogue in the Tunisian capital and was killed by police, the Interior Ministry said. A police officer and a passerby suffered burns.
The man started the fire after sundown Friday, around the time the synagogue holds Sabbath prayers.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the man advanced toward a law enforcement officer while ablaze, and a second officer opened fire to protect his colleague. The officer was hospitalized with burns, as was a passerby, the statement said.
The ministry did not release the man’s identity or potential motive for his act, saying only that he had unspecified psychiatric disorders.
Tunisia was historically home to a large Jewish population, now estimated to number about 1,500 people. Jewish sites in Tunisia have been targeted in the past.
A national guardsman killed five people at the 2,600-year-old El-Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba after an annual pilgrimage in 2023. Later that year, pro-Palestinian protesters vandalized a historic synagogue and sanctuary in the southern town of El Hamma. And a garden was set ablaze last year outside the synagogue in the coastal city of Sfax.
Tunisia’s recent history was also marked by the self-immolation of a street vendor in 2010 in a protest linked to economic desperation, corruption and repression. Mohamed Bouazizi’s act unleashed mass protests that led to the ouster of Tunisia’s autocratic ruler and uprisings across the region known as the Arab Spring.

Topics: Tunisia Synagogue fire

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‘We cannot forget Sudan’ amid ‘hierarchy of conflicts’: UK FM

Updated 25 January 2025
Arab News
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‘We cannot forget Sudan’ amid ‘hierarchy of conflicts’: UK FM

  • David Lammy: ‘If this was happening on any other continent there would be far more outrage’
  • About half of Sudan’s population face acute food insecurity, according to UN
Updated 25 January 2025
Arab News

LONDON: The humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan must not be forgotten amid a “hierarchy of conflicts” in the world, the UK’s foreign secretary has warned.

Writing in The Independent, David Lammy called for renewed international attention on the 21-month-long civil war. The humanitarian disaster from the war will be “one of the biggest of our lifetime,” he said.

Since the conflict began in April 2023, almost 4 million people have fled Sudan and fighting has killed more than 15,000, according to conservative estimates.

Lammy visited a refugee camp for displaced Sudanese in neighboring Chad this week. “I bore witness to what will go down in history as one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes of our lifetimes,” he said.

“The truth no one wants to admit is that if this was happening on any other continent — in Europe, in the Middle East, or in Asia — there would be far more attention from the media — far more outrage. There should be no hierarchy of conflicts, but sadly much of the world acts as if there is one.”

About half of Sudan’s population — more than 24 million people — face acute food insecurity, the latest UN figures show.

The Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces remain locked in a battle for control of the country and its resources.

Lammy praised the work of the country’s neighbors — including Egypt, Chad and South Sudan — in helping to manage the crisis.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, warned last week that the war is taking an “even more dangerous turn for civilians.”

On Thursday, the UN Human Rights Office reported that about 120 civilians were killed and more than 150 injured in drone attacks across the city of Omdurman.

Lammy said: “The world cannot continue to shrug its shoulders. There can be no hierarchy of suffering. We cannot forget Sudan.”

The UK has pledged $282 million in aid to almost 800,000 displaced people in Sudan. The funding will supply emergency food assistance and drinking water, among other relief.

Topics: Clashes in Sudan Sudan

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