CAIRO (MEMO) – The
Arabic hashtag ‘Leave Sisi’ continues to trend on Twitter with Egyptians using the social networking platform to call on Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to stand down.
Social media users have posted pictures of the 25 January uprising as the anniversary approaches next week. “Revolution, revolution until victory,” one wrote.
Another used the hashtag to highlight the case of Shorouk Yasser, who died after a truck slid off a ferry and into the Nile last week, and their disappointment with how authorities handled the incident.
Exiled TV anchor Moataz Matar, who is now in the UK, used the hashtag to announce that he will soon broadcast his new show on Facebook and YouTube after being forced to shut down his famous program, With Moataz, which was aired from Istanbul, after Egypt and Turkey normalized relations.
Another posted a video which appears to be an Egyptian female picking through rubbish.
One third of Egyptians live below the poverty line as prices rise, unemployment remains rife and wages remain low. Last year, global food prices hit a 10 year high, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, which is set to hit countries like Egypt the hardest.
Leave Sisi started trending last week after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he was willing to hold annual presidential elections and leave his position if that was what Egyptians wanted.
Speaking at the World Youth Forum in Sharm al-Sheikh Sisi responded to a question by a journalist on human rights violations in Egypt by saying figures quoted on the crisis abroad are inaccurate and not given in context.
Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour described Sisi’s comments as a mixture of hallucinations, hysteria and a huge insult and injustice for the Egyptian people.
There are some 65,000 political prisoners in Egypt who are systematically tortured and denied family visits which has led to an alarming rise in suicides.
The Egyptian government is carrying out a protracted military campaign in Sinai which has killed thousands of civilians and forced them from their homes after demolishing their houses.