Grief and anger persist, 10 years after a notorious mass killing at a protest camp in Cairo.
Ten years ago, hundreds of people, mostly civilians, were killed when Egyptian forces violently dispersed a sit-in protest by supporters of the recently ousted Islamist president. The crackdown on followers of Mohammed Morsi was one of the bloodiest incidents of its kind, and one of Egypt's darkest moments. As BBC Arabic's Sally Nabil reports from Cairo, memories of that day are still raw.
He says he took part in the sit-in because he feared his country would end up in the hands of the army generals.The violent dispersal of the sit-in at Rabaa and of another one at Nahda Square on the same day were not only unprecedented tragedies in Egypt's recent history, but were also gamechangers that reshaped the future of the Arab world's most populous country.
Following the protests, the Minister of Defence, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, removed Mr Morsi from power, bringing an abrupt end to the short-lived civilian rule. Mr Sisi himself was elected president a year later and has held the post ever since.The Egyptian authorities have always claimed they repeatedly called on the Muslim Brotherhood leaders to end what they called an "illegal" sit-in, but that they were ignored.
The authorities said they opened safe corridors for people to leave, before they sent in troops. But in a report, published one year after the dispersal,, attacking from each of the five main entrances to the square and leaving no safe exit until the end of the day." Mustafa, says his mother, Wafaa, emerged from the chaos of 14 August unscathed. Two days later, he was shot three times in a gun battle as he was heading to a police station in southern Cairo.Mustafa was in his 20s when he died in 2016, after being in a coma for three years. During this time, Wafaa never left his bedside in the intensive care unit.She controls her tears as she talks to me about her eldest and closest son.
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