6 Tweets 2 reads Aug 14, 2023
The Rabaa Massacre in Cairo, Egypt.
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On 3 July, 2013 Mohamed Morsi was deposed by a military coup by his defence minister, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who is now president.
In response, Morsi's supporters and critics of the coup staged nationwide protests demanding he be reinstated and a return to democracy.
The largest sit-in was held in Rabaa al-Adaweya Square in the northern Cairo district of Nasr City.
Some 85,000 protesters camped there for 6 weeks until they were violently dispersed, in what became known as the Rabaa massacre.
In the span of 12 hours, security forces fired live ammunition on large crowds of protesters.
Security forces used armoured personnel carriers, bulldozers, ground forces and snipers. They were covered by army tanks deployed outside the square.
Security forces detained 800 protesters over the course of the day, and also executed many of them.
Several journalists were killed while covering the event, including British Sky News cameraman Mick Deane, and 2 Al Jazeera cameramen.
Human Rights Watch called the massacre one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.
Investigations by independent rights groups reported that the killings were intentional and systematic, amounting to crimes against humanity

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