Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying Coptic Christians in southern Egypt early on Friday, killing at least 28 people, according to officials, in the latest deadly assault on the country's embattled religious minority.
Bishop Makarios of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Minya province said the assailants, travelling in three sport utility vehicles, had opened fire on a pick-up truck carrying workmen, and two buses transporting worshippers, as they travelled in a convoy to the monastery of St Samuel the Confessor.
Bishop Makarios said many of the victims had been shot at close range. The dead included children, elderly people and labourers, he said, and 25 others were wounded. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The gunmen got on the bus and they shot people point-blank,” Bishop Makarios said. He described frantic scenes at the three Minya hospitals where the wounded were treated, and where hundreds of people sought news of missing relatives.
“Everyone is trying to identify the dead and wounded,” he said. “There is no time for anger yet.”
Bishop Makarios was an outspoken critic of Egyptian security lapses after previous violence against Christians in Minya, but he said that there was little that could have been done to prevent the attack on Friday. “The gunmen came out of a nearby mountain and lay hiding in wait.” he said. “Policemen are there looking for them now.”
The attack took place on a road that linked a major highway and the monastery, which is in an isolated western part of the province, he continued. Police had already mounted checkpoints at both ends of the road. The assault highlighted the vulnerability of Christians to attackers bent on violence.
"It is a long road, and we can't expect them to post officers everywhere," he said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing of the main Coptic cathedral in Cairo on December 11th, as well as for the attack at a church in Alexandria and at another in Tanta on Palm Sunday, April 9th, killing a total of at least 78 people.
In February, a small Christian community in northern Sinai fled the town of El Arish after a series of gun attacks on homes and businesses. After the Palm Sunday attacks, president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt declared a state of emergency.
The violence was condemned by Pope Francis during his visit to Egypt last month. Violence is not the only problem facing Christians in Egypt, many of whom have left the country in recent years.
Official discrimination makes practising Christianity so difficult that some churches essentially operate in hiding. The leadership of the Coptic Church, under Pope Tawadros II, has given vocal support to Mr Sisi, who came to power in 2013. But that support has also made Copts a target for elements of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
After security forces killed hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in central Cairo in 2013, Islamists attacked hundreds of Coptic churches and homes. Tensions between Christians and Muslims are highest in Minya, the province that experienced the worst attacks on Copts in 2013, and the site of Friday’s attack.
New York Times service