Warraq Island residents clashed with security forces deployed intensively on and around the Nile island this week, with tensions flaring as authorities are yet to respond to the residents’ demands for clear answers and guarantees regarding the fate of their homes and lands. The new chapter in talks between residents and authorities comes as families in Warraq take action to disrupt the government’s ongoing development project and seek firm guarantees that officials will support them to stay in their homes and lands. Security forces set up on Tuesday metal mesh barriers at the entrance to the Qolaly ferry crossing that connects the island to the Nile bank, and, on Wednesday, more barriers were added in the vicinity of the crossing, according to a resident of the island who spoke to Mada Masr. The measures, they said, add to a series of existing restrictions already imposed on the residents’ movement and access to key goods and services. The new barriers appear intended to protect security personnel, after stones were thrown during clashes with residents near the ferry crossing in the preceding days, the resident said. The latest of these took place at Qolaly on Sunday and Monday, with several residents injured as a result, including a young man whose skull was fractured in the clashes, they added. To protest the security response to the Qolaly clashes, several residents also gathered at a demonstration on Monday evening near a security forces deployment stationed beneath the Tahya Misr Bridge that runs through the island. The gathering ended in further clashes, according to two residents who were present. The confrontations were visible in footage posted by Warraq residents on social media. As the ban on construction materials entering the island continues, the Qolaly ferry crossing, the main entry point to Warraq from Giza, has been a flashpoint of near-daily confrontations between residents and security forces for around nine years. One resident said to Mada Masr that the friction around the entry of materials to the island arises mainly between security forces and residents who work to deliver construction supplies to the island — but the clashes it triggers spill over to other residents in the area around the ferry. The clashes come in parallel to a campaign to remain the island that residents have pursued since August. A large number of island residents have begun organizing as part of a group called Staying on Warraq, pushing for firm guarantees from authorities regarding the fate of their land and homes, according to several residents who have spoken to Mada Masr in recent weeks, particularly as circulating reports and unofficial maps of the government’s development project appear to include parts of the residents’ lands. For years, residents have watched the development project unfold, waiting to learn what would happen to them, while their access to basic services on the island — like healthcare and education — has deteriorated due to state restrictions, leaving residents to establish replacements or alternatives themselves. Their efforts have included spending around LE400,000 to prepare schools for the current academic year. They have now concluded that waiting has brought no solutions, as the state continues to carry out the project after acquiring most of the island’s land, the residents have said. As part of this campaign, residents attempted on Sunday to obstruct the state’s road construction work on the island, blocking the way of transportation trucks involved in the state development project. The following day, they held a protest outside the New Warraq City Development Authority, where they vowed to escalate until their demands are met. “People went out and stood outside the authority because the state is now building the roads, and they found out that the roads are getting close to residents’ homes. What impact will this have in terms of demolitions?” a lawyer from the island told Mada Masr. “The state doesn’t solve anything. It wants to suffocate people so that they get fed up and leave,” one of the two residents who witnessed Monday’s clashes said. They said residents planned to continue disrupting the construction work being carried out by the state. “God willing, all the work will stop,” they said. The second resident said halting construction has an impact that “is felt quickly” because the work involves multiple companies and bodies. Clashes, by contrast, may not be reported beyond the “security director,” they said. While they seek to directly disrupt the development work, residents are waiting for negotiations with security officials to result in firm guarantees that they will be allowed to stay. In August, the Staying on Warraq group submitted to the development authority a set of demands, principally that around 300 feddans within the development project be allocated to Warraq’s existing residents. The most recent meeting between residents and security officials took place on September 10. “The solution is simple,” the lawyer said. “The state should hold a community dialogue, and the development should take residents and their homes into account. Come and tell us, ‘Here is what’s in it for me, and here is what’s in it for you.’” So far, however, “that’s not happening,” the lawyer said, noting that rounds of unsuccessful negotiation have left the group wary of accepting verbal-only commitments. Still, a campaign member told Mada Masr before the meeting with security officials on September 10 that they had received “positive” messages suggesting that the principle of residents remaining on the island is no longer in dispute. The meeting began around 8 pm and continued past midnight. Residents called for part of the island’s land within the development plan to be allocated for replacement homes for those who want them. Each owner would receive appropriate compensation, and no home would be vacated until its replacement is built and handed over with an ownership contract, under fair, official processes and conditions, according to a statement published by the group on Saturday. The statement said state representatives responded to the effect that “residents have the right to be part of the development project,” committing to refer the request to the relevant authorities to look into its implementation mechanisms and respond quickly, while stressing “that it would not take as long as it had before.” The security representatives taking part in the talks, meanwhile, offered residents around 1,000 apartments on an “apartment for an apartment, meter for a meter” basis, along with a share of the land and official contracts, the statement said. Residents are expected to meet again on Friday to discuss their next steps, the Staying on Warraq page said on Wednesday. Mada Masr contacted media officials at the Housing Ministry for comment but received no response by the time of publication.The post Clashes flare around Warraq with tensions high as island residents campaign for housing guarantees first appeared on Mada Masr.
