REMEMBERING THE RABAA MASSACRE

Seven years ago, on 14 August 2013, the Egyptian army stormed a sit-in at Cairo’s Rabaa square and slaughtered more than 1,000 people who were protesting against the removal of the country’s first democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian opposition had been demonstrating outside the Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo for 47 days when security forces attacked at around 6am on 14 August 2013.

Security forces shot indiscriminately into the crowd, set fire to the tents people had gathered in and threw tear gas into the masses. People were shot, burnt alive and suffocated with tear gas. Security forces blocked the entrances so that ambulances couldn’t get in to treat the wounded.

Despite the fact that the police and army opened fire and used excessive force, since that day not a single security officer has been brought to trial or been held accountable for the massacre.