Cairo [Egypt]: Thousands of pro-democracy protesters on Saturday marched on the streets of Egypt demanding the resignations of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Protests were reported in capital Cairo along with the cities of Alexandria and Suez.
Videos posted on social media shows demonstrators chanting “rise up, fear not, Sisi must go” “the people demand the regime’s fall” late on Friday, Al Jazeera reported
The government has put a ban on news organisations to prevent them from reporting.
The protest began after self-exiled Egyptian businessman and actor Mohamed Ali asked people to protest against the corrupt regime of president el Sisi.
“If el-Sisi does not announce his resignation by Thursday, then the Egyptian people will come out to the squares on Friday in protest,” Ali said in a video posted on Tuesday.
Former defence minister el-Sisi came to power in 2013 after organising a coup against democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi following mass protests.
According to the Qatar-based news website, the el-Sisi government has taken several measures to reboot the economy. But during his rule poverty rate has soared.
Officials statistics showcased that, one in every three Egyptians lives in poverty.
Human Rights Watch has said that since el-Sisi secured a second term in 2018, “his security forces have escalated a campaign of intimidation, violence, and arbitrary arrests against political opponents, activists.”
United Nations experts have previously stated their “grave concern” over a widening “assault on freedom of expression” in Egypt.