A man opened fire on relatives of his ex-wife during a reconciliation meeting outside Cairo on Thursday, 13 August, killing four people and wounding two others in an attack that has renewed alarm in Egypt over a string of extreme family and social violence.
The shooting took place in the 15th of May district, south of the capital, during a session convened to resolve a dispute between the suspect and his former wife. Instead, the gathering ended in gunfire. Among the dead were the suspect’s own daughter, two of his ex-wife’s brothers and her cousin’s husband. Two other relatives were wounded. Police arrested the suspect after neighbors reported hearing shots.
The attack came just days after another killing that had already gripped the country. In New Cairo, a man fatally shot an acquaintance, then killed the victim’s wife and two daughters, reportedly in an attempt to rob the family.
According to Egypt’s Interior Ministry, the assailant lured the man away and shot him before dumping his body along a road to Ain Sokhna. He then deceived the victim’s wife into believing her husband had been hospitalized after a car accident, drove off with her and her daughters, and shot them on the same road. He was arrested after relatives reported the family missing.
The back-to-back killings have intensified public debate in Egypt over a perceived rise in extreme, multi-victim violence carried out by acquaintances or relatives, rather than strangers. Officials have not disclosed a detailed motive for Thursday’s shooting beyond the breakdown of the reconciliation effort, and it remains unclear whether formal charges have been filed. Egyptian authorities said an investigation into the shooting is continuing.
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