Strengthen security in Egypt to avoid possible attacks at the Africa Cup of Nations

Sunday's attack at L & # 39; Egypt He activated the alarms one month before the start of the Cup of Africa of the Nations which will be developed in the country that tries to recover the clamor, after several years of deep chaos.

While the balance of the the tragedy was moderate (17 wounded), the same thing happened near the Pyramids of Giza, southwest of Cairo in one of the most touristy places of L & # 39; Egypt. The incident has been recorded in recent hours. An explosive device exploded during the pbadage of a tourist bus carrying a group of South Africans, near the new Egyptian National Museum, which build in the same area as the famous pyramids. .

The explosion broke the windows of the bus and several pbadengers were injured. In this sense, Department of External Affairs South Africa badured that three tourists from his country had been injured and had been hospitalized.

A few hours later, the Egyptian authorities announced that they had killed 12 jihadists, allegedly members of the group HASM, during a police operation. In a statement, the authorities presented HASM as an organization related to the Muslim Brothers, an Islamist group that has been subjected to severe repression in L & # 39; Egypt during the last years.

Unlike the Islamic State (EI), the group HASM Until now, he has not claimed any attack against tourists. Its objectives were based on magistrates or members of the forces of security.

according to Mostafa Kamel the Sayyed, political scientist Cairo University, "the pyramids sector is known to be a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood and groups like HASM and Liwa al-Thawra They have already claimed attacks in this region. "

However, Hbadan Nafaa, who also works as a professor of political science at Cairo University, believes that by this announcement the security services want "show that they are effective"

The main operations anti-jihadists in Egypt they continue to occur in the region of Sinai. In total, some 650 jihadists and about fifty Egyptian soldiers have since died February 2018, according to official data.

The previous attack against tourists in L & # 39; Egypt had occurred in December 2018When three Vietnamese and their guide died after a homemade bomb explosion, also near the pyramid zone.

Therefore, the Egyptian authorities intend to demonstrate that their country is once again a safe place with the organization this year of Africa Cup of Nations, which will be played between June 21 and July 19.

The tourism, which represents the 20% of the GDP of the African country, is a crucial sector for the Egyptian economy. After the 2011 revolution, Egypt experienced a sharp decline in tourism revenues and visitor numbers increased from 14.7 million in 2010 to 5.3 million in 2016.