Dilga village, which lies in the Deir Mawas district in Minya Governorate (250 kilometers south of Cairo), already had its problems—staggering poverty, a 70 pro cent illiteracy rate and troubled infrastructure.

Dilga village, which lies in the Deir Mawas district in Minya Governorate (250 kilometers south of Cairo), already had its problems—staggering poverty, a 70 pro cent illiteracy rate and troubled infrastructure.

Things got even worse once Mohamed Morsi was removed from office on July 3, 2013 and pro-Morsi protests made the village a center of crackdowns. The sit-ins of Rabaa El Adaweya and Nahda this past August left Dilga’s churches and police stations burned down. In mid-September, Apache helicopters, the army and national security forces turned Dilga—with a population of merely 120,000, a quarter of whom are Copts—into a war zone.

Deteriorated security situation

Forty-five-year-old trader Mina Sami said the village’s Copts have been living in hell since the January 25 Revolution, with the absence of security and the spread of crime, leaving citizens to protect themselves.

“As a result of ignorance and poverty, in addition to the absence of security in the village, which has not seen a single soldier in years, we were forced to pay for protection allocating our monthly salaries for thugs, on our own budget,” he explained.

Copts have also experienced kidnaping for ransom. “Nephew of Rev. Yoannis, Cyrils Youssef Saad was kidnapped for a ransom of 500,000 Egyptian Pounds, (US $72,500), which was fully paid, but the child was killed. A young man named Hanin was also kidnapped for a ransom of 1,000,000 of which 180,000 were paid for his return,” Sami said.

Thirty-five-year-old scrap seller Eid Rawas said the events of June 30 and Morsi’s isolation speech were a declaration of war against the Copts, as if they were the ones who toppled Morsi. “We are no longer able to leave our houses. Our churches  have been targeted by unknown youths. The issue has further escalated to acts of burning, theft and even searches for antiques inside our homes and under the Church of Virgin Mary, which dates back to over 1600 years. More than 150 Copts were forced to leave the village until things calmed down,” he said.

Ignorance and extremism

Who, then, has been targeting the Copts? Amr Rayes, Chief of Radio North Broadcasters and resident of Dilga, accused the extremist currents and blamed the people’s ignorance.“Dilga is an unfortunate village where illiteracy, ignorance and poverty prevail, just like Minya governorate. It is a village that lacks all types of services.  A project of a thousand villages, which was aimed to develop such underprivileged villages, excluded Dilga.

“The attackers are supporters of Assem Abdel Majid (leader of the Islamic Group) and his followers whom he repeatedly visited publicly in addition to arms dealers who were transferred from Minya. The village cannot be separated from its counterparts such as Zabrh village, which benefited from the spread of crime and terror in finding a market for the promotion of arms, which have been available at every house in the village for protection of rumored killing, burning and sabotage activities,” he explained.

Arms dealers and criminals are to be blamed, according to Atif Shukr who said Dilga village is closely related to Malawi district and is exploited by arms dealers to promote their business as they turned it into an arms distribution center for Upper Egypt. “We may say that Dilga has actually turned into a weapons’ farm as even arms dealers promote their products in relation to the village as their original manufacturer. We have warned against the absence of security and services in this village particularly since those prone to crime are driven by their ignorance and emotion rather than rationality,” he added.

“Thugs are the perpetrators”

Hussein Mohamed Ali, member of the Muslim Brotherhood in the village, refuted the accusations against the Islamic movement and said moderate Muslims have denounced the assaults against the Copts and even stood up for them. “The village, despite rumors of activities against the military and the police, has no leadership whether affiliated to the Brotherhood or any other Islamic group. The angry crowds have spontaneously reacted to the violent disengagement of the Nahda and Rabaa sit-ins, which incited the anti-military reactions,” he added.

He stressed that the terrorist attacks directed against the village and Coptic churches and houses were not committed by the Muslim Brotherhood. The attacks took place on July 3 following the isolation speech where churches of Virgin Mary, Mary Girgis and Ibram were stormed into and 16 houses adjacent to the church compound were burned.

“Thugs attacked the village and wrote their names on the Copts’ houses which signify the fact that they are not affiliated with the Brotherhood or the Islamic movement. They support chaos in Egypt and are well known to the security apparatus. I challenge any Copt to say a particular Islamic figure was amongst the attackers. Such events concordant with our demonstrations are criminal acts orchestrated to frame us,” he said.

Incidents of kidnapping and killing

Rev. Joseph Ayoub, pastor of the Church of Mary Girgisat DilgaVillage, underlined that the Copts have been exposed to more than 20 attacks by “supporters of the isolated president and their allies of thugs and arms dealers, forcing 150 families to leave their homes and the village altogether in fear for their lives, following the incidents of kidnapping and killing including the killing of the pastor of the Church and mutilation of his body which was dumped for four days near the cemetery as punishment for firing gunshots in the air to disperse some boys who were throwing bricks at churches and trying to break into his house,” he said.

He added that the heinous murders including the kidnapping of fourteen-year-old Cyrils for ransom and his murder as well as the kidnapping of a Copt trader for 500,000 Egyptian Pounds and his return after a week where he was cast in the desert. “We have repeatedly demanded security forces to storm into the village and liberate its people,” he stressed.

“We will not leave until we arrest all the criminals“

The recent security enforcement camping is under severe criticism of the residents. When security forces stormed into the village and arrested dozens of wanted criminals, the citizens were angered by what they described as ‘random arrests’ and organized demonstrations that violated the curfew and denounced the indiscriminate arrest of bearded men and residents. In this context, Ikram Mohammed Ismail claimed that since security forces have stormed into village, and despite the fleeing of thugs, they have been arresting the residents randomly and even expanding killing activities. The village has been on fire every day because of school and Azhar institute students who objected the coup, he said.

Major General Mitwali, Head of Minya Security, said, “Although we entered the village a week ago, things have not been settled, especially with the presence of information about numerous wanted suspects who have returned to the village. Our combing operations are still going where we capture outlaws and various gangs involved in theft, kidnapping and murder in addition to antiques dealers, including three Sudanese in possession of 16 pieces of stolen antiquities from the Museum of Malawi during the events of violence.”

Mitwali concluded that security forces will not leave the village until all criminals are arrested.