ICC Note

After four high profile attacks against Coptic Christians, the Egyptian government is struggling to come up with responses to tighten security. Egypt wants to keep its image as a stable and diverse country in a sea of Middle Eastern countries plagued with sectarian violence. President el-Sissi first response to the latest ambush of Christian pilgrims was to begin bombing Libya where they claim militants are being trained. Making up 10% of the population, Christians in Egypt are an integral part of the social fabric and not just a secluded minority. This might change if the attacks continue and Coptic Christians are forced to flee.

2017-05-28 Egypt (ABC News) – Egypt’s response to the latest deadly attack against its sizable Christian minority — a wave of airstrikes against Islamic militant installations in eastern Libya — may be a sign of both despair and resolve.

The Arab world’s most populous nation, Egypt has for years been fighting Islamic militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula. The government had so far succeeded in containing them in that remote and rugged northeast corner of the country and foiled repeated attempts by the militants to seize and keep territory.

But the violence has now spilled over onto the mainland, with an increasing number of high-profile attacks, including a total of four that targeted Christians since December. The string of attacks has highlighted an ongoing vulnerability and a worrying lack of reliable intelligence by Egypt’s robust security forces.

Unlike the attacks in Sinai, which have mostly targeted soldiers, police and suspected collaborators, the attacks on Christians have attracted unwanted international attention and stymied Egypt’s desperate efforts to revive its tourism industry, a traditional backbone of its now-ailing economy.

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