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Global community mourns with Arab world after Egypt’s deadly Sohag train crash

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People gather around the wreckage of two trains that collided in the Tahta district of Sohag province on March 26, 2021. (AFP)
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People inspect the damage after two trains have collided near the city of Sohag, Egypt, March 26, 2021. (Reuters)
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People gather around the wreckage of two trains that collided in the Tahta district of Sohag province on March 26, 2021. (AFP)
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Updated 27 March 2021
Mohammed Abu Zaid
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Global community mourns with Arab world after Egypt’s deadly Sohag train crash

  • More than 30 people dead in massive train crash
  • King Salman, Crown Prince extend condolences to El-Sisi for crash victims
Updated 27 March 2021
Mohammed Abu Zaid

DUBAI/CAIRO: The Arab and global communities have offered their condolences to Egypt following the death of 32 people in the deadly train crash near the southern city of Sohag. There were also 165 people injured.

Rail traffic resumed Saturday, authorities said, a day after two trains collided.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent their condolences to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the families of those who were involved in the train collision.

Gulf countries Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE together with Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan also expressed their sadness following the tragic crash.

Pakistan similarly solidarity ‘with brotherly Egypt in this hour of grief.’

TV news network Al Arabiya published security camera footage which appears to have captured the moment the crash happened.

The blurred video shows one train coming to a standstill – seconds later it is hit by what appears to be a second train.

 

The British ambassador to Egypt, Geoffrey Adams, tweeted his condolences.

“Very sad to hear of the tragic train collision in Sohag today. My sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of those affected,” the envoy said.

El-Sisi vowed ‘deterrent punishment’ for the culprits of the deadly train collision, stressing determination to end a “pattern of such disasters.”

“Whoever caused this tragic accident, whether through negligence or corruption or other reasons, will face deterrent punishment with no exceptions, reluctance or deferment,” El-Sisi posted on his Facebook page.

According to Egypt’s railway authorities, the accident happened when “unknown individuals” activated the emergency brakes of a passenger train heading to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. Once that train had stopped, it was struck from behind by another train.

“The trains collided while going at not very high speeds, which led to the destruction of two carriages and (caused) a third to overturn,” a security source told Reuters. The two trains involved were the number 157 and the number 2011.

The collision occurred near Al-Sawamiah village in Sohag province in Upper Egypt — 460 kiometers from Cairo. Videos from the scene show the wrecked carriages with passengers trapped inside and surrounded by rubble. Bystanders carried bodies and laid them out on the ground near the site, AP reported.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly set up a crisis room at the Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center to monitor the situation, and to facilitate coordination between the concerned ministries and departments. He later visited the scene along with five ministers.

The public prosecutor ordered an urgent investigation. The train drivers have been taken in for questioning and a separate probe has been ordered by Transport Minister Kamel Al-Wazir. A security source said further details will be announced once the cause of the accident is confirmed.

Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mujahid said that, immediately after the incident, 36 ambulances had been dispatched to transport the injured to hospitals.

He added that the ministry has set up a crisis and emergency room in Sohag to ensure that the injured are taken care of and that there is no shortage of medical supplies.

Images captured by local media showed buckled train carriages derailed above a river.

El-Sisi earlier wrote on Twitter that he was monitoring the situation closely and that anyone responsible for the crash would be held to account.

“Anyone who caused this painful accident through negligence or corruption, or anything similar, must receive a deterrent punishment without exception or delay,” he tweeted.

"I have directed the prime minister and all agencies concerned to be present at the site of the accident, to continuously follow up, and to inform me of all developments and reports related to the situation … I extend my full condolences to the families of the victims,” he added. 

In March last year, at least 13 people were injured when two passenger trains collided in Cairo, triggering a brief suspension of rail services nationwide.

At the time rail managers blamed the crash on signals not functioning in bad weather.

And in February 2019, a train derailed and caught fire at Cairo's main railway station, killing at least 22 people and injuring 41, and prompting the transport minister, Hisham Arafat, to resign.

Topics: Egypt Train Crash

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In Sudan’s old port of Suakin, dreams of a tourism revival

Updated 6 sec ago
AFP
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In Sudan’s old port of Suakin, dreams of a tourism revival

  • Inside the ruins of a mosque, a restoration crew is hard at work rebuilding this piece of Suakin, over a century after the city was abandoned
Updated 6 sec ago
AFP
SUAKIN, Sudan: The mayor of Suakin dreams of a rebirth for his town, an ancient Red Sea port spared by the wars that have marked Sudan’s history but reduced to ruins by the ravages of time.
“It was called the ‘White City’,” for its unique buildings made of coral stone taken from the seabed, said mayor Abu Mohamed El-Amin Artega, who is also the leader of the Artega tribe, part of eastern Sudan’s Beja ethnic group.
Now the once-booming port and tourist draw languishes on the water, effectively forgotten for years as Sudan remains mired in a devastating war between the army and paramilitary forces.
But inside the ruins of a mosque, a restoration crew is hard at work rebuilding this piece of Suakin, over a century after the city was abandoned.
“Before the war, a lot of people came, a lot of tourists,” said Ahmed Bushra, an engineer with the association Safeguarding Sudan’s Living Heritage from Conflict and Climate Change (SSLH).
“We hope in the future, when peace comes to Sudan, they will come and enjoy our beautiful historic buildings here,” he told AFP.
Architecture student Doha Abdelaziz Mohamed is part of the crew bringing the mosque back to life with funding from the British Council and support from UNESCO.
“When I came here, I was stunned by the architecture,” the 23-year-old said.
The builders “used techniques that are no longer employed today,” she told AFP. “We are here to keep our people’s heritage.”

Abandoned

The ancient port — set on an oval island nestled within a lagoon — served for centuries as a transit point for merchant caravans, Muslim and Christian pilgrims traveling to Makkah and Jerusalem, and the regional slave trade, according to the Rome-based heritage institute ICCROM.
It became a vibrant crossroads under the Ottoman Empire, said Artega, 55, and its population grew to around 25,000 as a construction boom took off.
“The streets were so crowded that, as our forefathers said, you could hardly move.”
Everything changed in 1905, when the British built a deeper commercial port 60 kilometers (37 miles) north, to accommodate increased maritime traffic with the opening of the Suez Canal.
“Merchants and residents moved to Port Sudan,” the mayor said, lamenting the decline of what he calls “Sudan’s great treasure.”
But his Artega tribe, which has administered the city since the sixth century with powers “passed from father to son,” refused to leave.
His ancestor, he said, scolded the British: “You found a port as prosperous as a fine hen — you took its eggs, plucked its feathers and now you spit its bones back at us.”
As proof of the Artega’s influence, he keeps at home what he says are swords and uniforms gifted to his ancestors by Queen Victoria during the British colonial period.
The rise of Port Sudan spelled disaster for Suakin, whose grand public buildings and elegant coral townhouses were left to decay, slowly eaten away by the humid winds and summer heat.
But the 1990s brought new hope, with the opening of a new passenger port linking Suakin to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Today, the Sudanese transport company Tarco operates daily crossings, carrying around 200 passengers per trip from the modern port of Suakin, within sight of the ancient city and its impoverished environs.

Lease to Turkiye

The city’s optimism grew in 2017 when then-president Omar Al-Bashir granted the old port to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, under a 99-year lease for touristic development.
A Turkish company restored the old governor’s palace, customs house and two mosques, but the project stalled in 2019 after Bashir fell from power in the face of mass protests.
Then, in April 2023, the cruise passengers and scuba divers who once stopped in Suakin completely vanished when fighting erupted between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
A rusting cargo ship now lies stranded on a sandbank in the blue lagoon, where only a handful of fishing boats float around.
But Bushra, from SSLH, remains optimistic. He hopes to see the mosque, which houses the tomb of a Sufi sheikh, host a traditional music festival when the renovation is complete, “in five months.”
“When we finish the restoration, the tourists can come here,” he said.

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