Small-scale, but unpublished, protests since 2013 took place Friday (September 20th) in Cairo to demand the departure of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
They took place in the capital and other cities of Egypt, and were quickly dispersed by the police. Videos posted on social networks showed scores of people gathered in the cities of Alexandria, Al-Mahalla and Damietta in the Nile Delta, as well as in Suez.
In Cairo, AFP journalists witnessed five arrests during the night rally in Tahrir Square, the center of the 2011 revolution that led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.
Calls on social networks
Friday's protests echoed calls made on social networks, notably by an Egyptian businessman in exile, Mohamed Ali. From Spain, this construction contractor has published several viral videos calling for the overthrow of Sissi and the military, whom he accuses of corruption.
Anti-government protests are rare in Egypt, where they are banned under a law passed in 2013 after the military coup led by General Sissi against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
Since that coup, the Egyptian regime has been mercilessly cracking down on the opposition, imprisoning thousands of Islamists, civil society activists and bloggers.
With AFP