2019 Egyptian protests

The 2019 Egyptian protests were mass protests^[10][11][12] in Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta and other cities on 20, 21 and 27 September 2019 in which the protestors called for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to be removed from power.^[10][13] Security forces responded with tear gas, rubber bullets^[13] and, as of 23 October 2019^[update], 4300 arbitrary arrests had been made,^[4] based on data from the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information,^[7][14] among which 111 were minors according to Amnesty International and the Belady Foundation.^[4] Prominent arrestees included human rights lawyer Mahienour el-Massry,^[5] journalist and former leader of the Constitution Party Khaled Dawoud and two professors of political science at Cairo University, Hazem Hosny and Hassan Nafaa.^[7] The wave of arrests was the biggest in Egypt since Sisi formally became president in 2014.^[15][16]

Human Rights Watch called for all those arrested for peacefully expressing their opinions to be released immediately.^[17] Amnesty International described the Sisi government being "shaken to its core" by the 20–21 September protests and that the authorities had "launched a full-throttle clampdown to crush demonstrations and intimidate activists, journalists and others into silence".^[18] Two thousand people, including Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) representatives, protested in Khartoum on 26 September in support of Waleed Abdelrahman Hassan, a Sudanese anti-Islamist student detained by Egyptian authorities, who gave a forced confession on MBC Masr television.^[19][2] The SPA stated, "the era when Sudanese citizens were humiliated inside or outside their country has gone and will never return".^[19] The Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned the Egyptian ambassador^[20] and Waleed Abdelrahman Hassan was freed on 2 October 2019.^[9]

A massive police clampdown took place around Tahrir Square and across Egypt on 27 September,^[21] together with pro-Sisi rallies of government employees organised by the National Security Agency,^[22] and anti-Sisi protests on Warraq Island on the Nile,^[21] in Giza,^[23] in Helwan,^[22] in Qus,^[24] and in the Luxor,^[25] Aswan^[24] Minya^[24] and Sohag Governorates.^[26] On 3 November 2019, parliamentarian Ahmed Tantawi made online and parliamentary proposals for Sisi to step down in 2022 rather than stand for re-election in 2024.^[27]