Ten-Year-Old Christian Girl Shot Dead By Muslim Brotherhood As Violence Returns To Egypt's Streets
https://nigeriaafrica1.blogspot.com/2013/08/ten-year-old-christian-girl-shot-dead.html
A 10-year-old Christian girl has been shot dead in the street in Egypt amid rising tensions with Islamists.
Egypt's Christian community gathered in a church in Cairo last night to mourn Jessi Boulus, who was shot as she walked home from Bible class at the Ahmed Esmat Street Evangelical Church where her uncle serves as the pastor.
The shooting happened last week, but came to light only yesterday as her family expressed anger over the failure of the police to identify the killers.
The death of the schoolgirl from a single shot to the chest is the latest blow for Egypt's Christian community as it is engulfed in a post-Arab Spring political crisis that has seen the collapse of authority and rise of Islamist militants.
Nasr Allah Zakaria, Jessi's uncle, said that members of the family were focusing on achieving what little justice they can for their "beautiful girl".
Jessi's father told the BBC: "Jessi was everything to us. Her killers didn't know that Jessi was my life my future. They killed our future. I lived for her." The family will visit the office of Cairo's central prosecutor, hoping that Jessi's case will receive a better response than the silence that has so far followed the murder.
Egypt's Coptic community makes up about 10 per cent of the country's 84 million population. Coptic and other minority groups believe neither the police nor the judiciary take their cases seriously.
Egypt's Christians had reported a rise in social discrimination and violent attacks throughout the now deposed Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammad Morsi's time in office.
Since the coup last month, Coptic leaders say the situation is worse as tensions between the president's Islamist supporters and their Christian neighbours increase.
One Muslim Brotherhood member was shot dead and at least 11 people wounded as clashes erupted on the streets of Cairo yesterday between supporters and opponents of the ousted president.
The rivals threw stones and bottles in battles along downtown streets as police fired volleys of tear gas, eventually forcing the two sides apart.
The shooting happened last week, but came to light only yesterday as her family expressed anger over the failure of the police to identify the killers.
The death of the schoolgirl from a single shot to the chest is the latest blow for Egypt's Christian community as it is engulfed in a post-Arab Spring political crisis that has seen the collapse of authority and rise of Islamist militants.
Nasr Allah Zakaria, Jessi's uncle, said that members of the family were focusing on achieving what little justice they can for their "beautiful girl".
Jessi's father told the BBC: "Jessi was everything to us. Her killers didn't know that Jessi was my life my future. They killed our future. I lived for her." The family will visit the office of Cairo's central prosecutor, hoping that Jessi's case will receive a better response than the silence that has so far followed the murder.
Egypt's Coptic community makes up about 10 per cent of the country's 84 million population. Coptic and other minority groups believe neither the police nor the judiciary take their cases seriously.
Egypt's Christians had reported a rise in social discrimination and violent attacks throughout the now deposed Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammad Morsi's time in office.
Since the coup last month, Coptic leaders say the situation is worse as tensions between the president's Islamist supporters and their Christian neighbours increase.
One Muslim Brotherhood member was shot dead and at least 11 people wounded as clashes erupted on the streets of Cairo yesterday between supporters and opponents of the ousted president.
The rivals threw stones and bottles in battles along downtown streets as police fired volleys of tear gas, eventually forcing the two sides apart.
