On 2 November 2018, masked gunmen opened fire on a group of Egyptian Christians travelling by bus through Minya. There was a convoy of three vehicles and two of them managed to escape. The vehicles were carrying

Copts Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are C ...

traveling from

Sohag Governorate Sohag Governorate is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is located in the southern part of the country (Upper Egypt), and covers a stretch of the Nile Valley. Since 1960, its capital has been the city of Sohag. Prior to that, the capital was t ...

and

Minya Governorate Minya Governorate ( ar, محافظة المنيا ') is one of the governorates of Egypt, governorates of Upper Egypt. Its capital city, Minya, Egypt, Minya, is located on the left bank of the Nile River. Etymology The name originates from the c ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

to the

Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor (Arabic: دير الأنبا صموئيل المعترف), Dair al-Anba Ṣamū'īl al-mu'tarif " or Deir el-Qalamun (Arabic: دير القلمون) is an Egyptian monastery in the Western Desert. Locatio ...

. At least 7 people from Minya were killed while 12 others were injured. A similar attack near the same place had happened in 2017.

Background

have faced growing

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

and sectarian violence in Egypt since the early 2010s, including several in the last two years, all claimed by the Islamic State. A similar attack happened on 26 May 2017, when masked gunman opened fire on a convoy carrying

in the same route of this attack, killing 29 people and wounding 22 others. On 29 December 2017, a gunman killed at least 11 people in attacks on a Coptic Orthodox church and a Christian-owned shop near

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

before he was wounded and arrested. On 9 April 2017, Palm Sunday, terrorists bombed two Coptic churches — St. George's Church in the northern Egyptian city of

Tanta Tanta ( ar, طنطا ' , ) is a city in Egypt with the country's fifth largest populated area and 658,798 inhabitants as of 2018. Tanta is located between Cairo and Alexandria: north of Cairo and southeast of Alexandria. The capital of Gharbia ...

on the

Nile delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...

, and

Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral is a Coptic church located in the Abbassia District in Cairo, Egypt. The cathedral is the Seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope. It was built during the time when Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria was Pope of the Coptic ...

, the principal church in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

— killing 47 people and injuring at least 126 others. On 11 December 2016, a suicide bomber killed 29 people and injured 47 others at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church (commonly known as El-Botroseya Church)

Attack

On 2 November 2018, three buses left

carrying

Coptic Christians Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are ...

on their way to Minya. The Buses were ambushed by Islamic state fighters around Minya. During the ambush, the first two buses managed to escape with 12 injured passengers however the third bus was unable to escape the ambush and was forced to come to a stop. Seven civilians on board the bus were killed.

Response and reactions

Two days later, 19 militants involved in the attack were killed in a shoot-out with the police.

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

prayed for the victims in his Sunday

Angelus The Angelus (; Latin for "angel") is a Catholic devotion commemorating the Incarnation of Christ. As with many Catholic prayers, the name ''Angelus'' is derived from its incipit—the first few words of the text: ("The Angel of the Lord ...

Address, subsequent to the killings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minya attack, 2018 2018 murders in Africa November 2018 crimes in Africa November 2018 events in Egypt Bus incidents in Egypt ISIL terrorist incidents in Egypt Islamic terrorist incidents in 2018 Massacres of Christians 2018 mass shootings in Africa Massacres in 2018 Massacres in Egypt Mass shootings in Egypt Persecution of Copts by ISIL 21st-century mass murder in Egypt Terrorist incidents in Egypt in 2018 2018 attack 2018 road incidents in Africa Ambushes in Egypt

Background

Attack

Response and reactions

See also

References