16 die in protests marking Egypt revolt

Thirteen people including one security officer were killed in clashes on the outskirts of Cairo. Photo / AP

Sixteen Egyptians were killed in clashes around the country as the people went to the streets to protest against the Government on the fourth anniversary of the uprising that led to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak.

In all, 50 people were injured, the Health Ministry said. However, the streets of Cairo itself remained mostly empty. Police were deployed at flashpoints and sealed off access to Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the 18-day uprising in 2011.

The protests around the country were the biggest since Abdel-fattah al-Sisi was elected in June. Nonetheless they remained small compared to previous protests against Mubarak and President Mohammed Morsi.

Activists have stayed off the streets of Cairo in the wake of Sisi's security crackdown and due to political apathy.

Sisi ousted the elected Islamist Morsi in July 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

Hundreds of people gathered in Alexandria to mourn a 32-year-old activist, Shaimaa el-Sabagh, who was killed on Sunday as she marched peacefully, along with dozens of others, toward Tahrir Square.

Photographs online of Sabagh shortly before and after she was shot have caused outrage. She was killed by birdshot as police were dispersing the protest, the Socialist Popular Alliance Party said. The group was trying to reach the square to lay down flowers in the spot where hundreds of people were killed in 2011 demanding freedom and the end of three decades of Mubarak's autocratic rule, the party said.

Two people were killed in the Nile Delta city of Beheira when a bomb went off. One person was killed in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, while 13 others were killed in clashes on the outskirts of Cairo, including one from the security forces.

The injured include civilians and security forces, the Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said.

Protest numbers dwindled in Egypt after the 2013 ousting of Morsi, following mass protests against him and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hundreds of Morsi's supporters were killed as security forces dispersed their sit-in in August of the same year. That year a law banning protests without prior approval was passed.

In a televised address over the weekend, Sisi praised the revolutionary spirit of 2011 but said achieving all of its goals would come slowly.

While critics say they have lost many of the rights they fought hard for, including the freedom of assembly, Sisi's supporters say the country needed a period of calm after years of turmoil.

- Independent