Egypt Government Approves Nationwide Emergency After Deadly Attacks on Churches

At Saint Joseph Church in Shadman Town area, congregants beseeched God for peace and comfort for the bereaved families of the bombings at two churches in Egypt.

The fear among many of Egypt's Coptic Christians is that the two suicide bombings which killed 44 people and injured more than 100 at churches on Palm Sunday are just a taste of worse to come in Islamic State's ongoing campaign.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in its statement towards twin terror attacks on the Mar Girgis Church in Tanta and the St. Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria during Egypt's Palm Sunday festivities on 9 April 2017, stressed that Singapore strongly condemns the acts which had resulted in the tragic loss of lives, as well as injuries and suffering to many. Soon thereafter, another suicide bomber struck at St. Mark's cathedral in Alexandria, where the Coptic Pope Tawadros was presiding at Palm Sunday services.

The prime minister also sent a letter to Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Church, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of all Africa.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ordered military deployments across Egypt, declaring a three-month state of emergency.

"The powers that the security agencies have already don't need reinforcement by the state of emergency", Abdel-Aziz said.

Eyewitnesses said a police officer detected the bomber before he blew himself up.

Sunday's bombings came almost four months after a suicide bomber killed 23 people in a Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo.

The violence comes ahead of Catholic Pope Francis's first trip to Egypt later this month, which a Vatican official said will proceed as planned on April 28 and 29 despite the attacks. The state of emergency that was declared in response will extend for three months. "For someone to get this amount of explosives inside, then security wasn't doing its job". "ISIS are deeply sectarian, that's nothing new, but they have made a decision to re-emphasize that aspect in Egypt over the past few months", says H.A.Hellyer, a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute.

According to the Reuters report, Coptic Christians have been in Egypt since the days of ancient Rome. It's simple to say that they are terrorists, but who is behind the terrorists?

The former army chief met with U.S. President Donald Trump a week ago at the White House, seeking closer ties and discussing the fight against extremism.

The security forces have been put on alert in anticipation of more attacks, the media reported. "It's a disturbing development because it indicates we have the possibility of repeated and continued attacks against soft targets". In February, scores of Christian families and students fled Egypt's North Sinai province after a spate of targeted killings.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called the attacks "evil" and urged people to pray for the victims.