Egypt says arrests more than dozen people for creating a ‘negative atmosphere’

Egypt’s interior ministry announced Saturday that it arrested more than a dozen people for seeking to create “a negative atmosphere” through “creating crises.”

The ministry said in a statement that the group belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood organisation and is known as the “crises unit.”

“Its role is to find new ways to create and provoke crises through its cadres in the country,” the ministry added.

According to the ministry, the group targeted Egypt’s economy through “claiming the state’s failure in implementing its development plans.”

The “escalation” in the dollar crisis and the “escalation of factional demands of some workers in different institutions” are among the crises the group is accused of creating, the ministry said.

The ministry’s statement included a video featuring four of the men arrested confessing to having been part of the unit.

Egypt’s economy has been struggling over the past five years the aftermath of years of political turmoil which saw 2011 uprising, followed by the ouster of two presidents and the resignation of seven cabinets.

Accordingly, Egypt has been scrambling to collect money as it faces an acute dollar crisis which sent its foreign reserves to $16.564 billion compared to almost $36 billion before the uprising.

Months following the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013, Egyptian authorities listed the group as a terrorist organisation and launched a crackdown on the group’s leaders, figures and supporters.

Source: Aswat Masriya