By The New York Times –
Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying Coptic Christians in southern Egypt early Friday, killing at least 20 people, according to state news agencies.
A Christian official in Minya province, south of Cairo, said the attackers opened fire on a pickup truck carrying workmen and a bus carrying worshipers as they traveled in convoy to St. Samuel’s monastery. Many of the worshipers were children.
“We are having a very hard time reaching the monastery because it is in the desert. It’s very confusing. But we know that children were killed,” said the official, Ibram Samir
The governor of Minya told Reuters that the toll had reached 23 dead and 25 injured. The workmen included gardeners and builders who worked at the monastery, Mr. Samir said.
The attack was the latest in a series of deadly assaults on Egypt’s embattled Christian minority.
The Islamic State bombed the main Coptic cathedral in Cairo on Dec. 11 and attacked a church in Alexandria and a church in Tanta on Palm Sunday, April 9, killing at least 78 people. 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 attack, Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, 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 for the Christian population in Egypt, many of whom have left the country in recent years. Official discrimination makes the practice of Christianity so difficult that some churches operate virtually 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 the security forces killed hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in central Cairo in 2013, Islamists attacked hundreds of Coptic churches and homes.
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