Negotiations with security officials end Warraq residents’ sit-in for better services

Residents of Warraq Island suspended on Monday a sit-in they had convened, blocking the supply of building materials to a government construction project on the island, to demand access to their own materials and to demand the improvement of basic services, according to residents of the island who spoke to Mada Masr.

They said they agreed to suspend the sit-in after negotiations with security officials who promised to accede to their demands.

The protest came a week after clashes with security forces resumed over authorities’ restrictions on the delivery of construction materials from the city, part of a policy aimed at emptying the island of its residents to make way for a development project that would turn it into a “new city.”

Families living on the Nile island began their sit-in on Sunday outside the arrival point for the ferry that carries vehicles transporting building materials for the government’s construction project on the island.

“We’re staying here until the government comes to hear our demands,” one resident told Mada Masr before the sit-in was suspended. “We’re for development, but don’t make things harder for us,” they said, pointing to how residents want to ensure that development does not come at the expense of their lives and daily needs.

A second resident said the sit-in had initially been planned to continue until the end of the week, with protestors scheduled to meet on Friday to discuss their next steps. According to the resident, they temporarily suspended the protest after Monday’s negotiations with security officials while they waited for a response to their demands.

A third resident summed up the urgent demands as including: the restoration of the work of sewage pumping trucks, as the island’s sewage tanks are full; the removal of the security barriers installed at the island’s two entrances at the Qolaly and Shubra ferry crossings and replacing them with basic inspection procedures; and the repair of street lighting services.

Families are also calling for improving healthcare services, according to the third resident, including the provision of a doctor at the island’s hospital. Residents currently have to leave Warraq for emergency and serious medical treatment after the state closed the local health unit in 2021 under the pretext of conducting maintenance.

The third resident described these as simple and immediate demands that the state could easily meet as a gesture of “good faith.” Responding to the demands, they said, would be seen as a first step toward engaging with residents, rather than continuing to adopt pressure policies against them and would signal to the residents that the state is prepared to enter into serious talks about conditions under which they can maintain their right to continue living on the island. That would require making everyday life easier, including allowing residents to build and to bring in vehicles carrying construction materials. Another key demand, they said, is for a state representative to engage with residents to discuss their situation and the island’s future.

Clashes broke out between security forces and dozens of the island’s residents near the Qolaly ferry crossing last week after a security officer assaulted a boy in an attempt to prevent him from bringing building materials over from the city, according to accounts published online by several residents. The clashes lasted for several consecutive days, with three protestors arrested and later released.

The third resident referred to conditions on the island as a “siege” that has lasted for nine years, with heightened security measures such as checkpoints at the island’s entrances, as security forces have shut down three of the five ferries that used to tie the Nile island to the rest of the city.

Residents started organizing to oppose the government’s plan to expel them from their homes in 2017 and have continued to do so after the government clarified in the intervening years its plans to develop the island and the issuance of a series of expropriation decisions.

Warraq residents have complained of tighter restrictions on the delivery of building materials for around a month, considering the development a form of pressure intended to force them to leave their homes and accept the compensation they are being offered by the government as part of the development project on the island and the expropriation decisions that come with it.

Clashes, which flare up periodically on the island between security personnel and residents, have broken out again in recent weeks, as the government has stressed its determination to persist with the New Warraq City project that saw the Housing Ministry handed rights to around 993 out of the island’s 1,295 feddans.

Residents have managed to bring the construction materials they need to the island in their own private vehicles or on fishing boats. While security authorities have allowed the entry of materials from time to time, they intensified their checks at the beginning of August, a change that came alongside a shuffle of officials within the Interior Ministry, according to one of the island residents who spoke to Mada Masr.

The post Negotiations with security officials end Warraq residents’ sit-in for better services first appeared on Mada Masr .