The 2020 Egyptian protests were a series of decentralized street protests in Egypt that started on September 20, the anniversary of the 2019 Egyptian protests, and were aimed at the resignation of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Protesters turned to the streets in several cities in Egypt, including Cairo, Giza, Suez, Kafr El Dawwar, Alexandria, Aswan, El Qanater El Khayreya, Faiyum, Minya, Luxor, and Damietta. September 25th, the sixth day of the protests, was called "Friday of Rage" (Arabic: جُمْعة الغَضَب, ALA-LC: jumʿa al-ghaḍab).
Background
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's administration began after the 2013 uprisings when former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was overthrown. Egyptians had accused Morsi of not realizing the promises he made to them in the elections that made him president after the uprising of 2011. They furthermore accused Morsi of steering political power to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi, who was an army chief general at the time, had ordered for Morsi to be arrested. Morsi went to trial with several members of the Muslim Brotherhood and was eventually imprisoned for 20 years, he died in 2019.
Because of Sisi's important role in the arrest and resignation of Morsi, people considered him a saviour from Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood rule. In the elections of 2014, Sisi won with 96% of the votes. But Sisi's popularity decreased as the years went by, especially after the austerity measures taken in 2016 and after Sisi had granted sovereignty of the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia. In the 2018 elections, Sisi was again elected president with 97% of the votes. Despite the anti-protest law that he implemented after the events of 2013, people turned to protest in 2016, again in 2019, and eventually in 2020, against his regime.
On 20 September, 2019, construction contractor and actor Mohamed Ali had called for people to protest against president Sisi through a video that he posted online. Ali had posted other videos online accusing the Egyptian president and the military of corruption. These videos gained much attention. An anonymous source told Africa Research Bulletin that around 3000 Egyptians turned to the streets on this first day of protests. Nael Shama, an Egyptian political analyst, stated how the demonstrations escalated quickly, which could be seen in the chants they shouted: in protests in 2011, protesters' main slogan was "Bread, freedom, and social justice", but during the protests in 2019, people chanted that they wanted president Sisi to resign. Two slogans used according to Al Jazeera were "Rise up, fear not, Sisi must go" and "The people demand the regime's fall". The protests were also different from 2011 because the young people that attended the 2020 protests had not experienced the events of the 2011 uprising in the way they are experiencing Egyptian life now. Therefore, their ideas, demands, and ideas of the future are different. Sisi supporters turned to the streets as a counter-force, and, as videos of the demonstrations had circulated the internet, they responded online by using pro-Sisi hashtags. According to Africa Research Bulletin, the government responded to the protests with fire weapons, teargas, and arrests. They furthermore blocked Tahrir Square, the square in Cairo where the 2011 protests had also taken place. Amnesty International adds that besides arresting many, the Egyptian government also blocked the BBC and Alhurra news websites to try to stop the protests from spreading. The Egyptian security forces detained a total of 4300 people in relation to the 2019 protests, 111 of which were minors.
Causes of the 2020 protests
The motivation behind the 2020 protests are similar to that of the 2019 protests. Many Egyptians had been discontent towards the government because of police brutality and the economic issues the country had been facing as a result of the 2016 austerity measures; in 2020, almost 70% of the Egyptian population lived under the poverty line. People's dissatisfaction about Egyptian economics was strengthened in 2020 by the worsening economic situation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, people had become frustrated when a government campaign issued fines and demolitions on unlicensed housing, or illegal construction, as Sisi called it. People were often not able to pay the fines and were disgruntled as unlicensed housing had not been a problem before.