AFRICA/EGYPT - Copts abducted in Libya. For Islamists they are "legitimate targets"

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - The armed gangs of the Libyan Islamist Ansar al-Sharia network consider the Egyptian Copts who are in Libya "legitimate targets", and hit them with violence and targeted kidnappings even for retaliation against the support that Egypt intends to ensure the government which took office in Tobruk, recognizing it as the legitimate representative of Libya and interfers in the Libyan civil war to safeguard its western border. Hussein Haridi, former assistant of the Foreign Ministry reported to the Egyptian media the geopolitical interpretation of the latest escalation regarding the anti-Coptic violence in Libya.
Last week with two collective kidnappings, 20 Egyptian Copts were taken from their homes in the city of Sirte. In the same city, in the days before, a couple of Egyptian Copts and their teenage daughter had been killed.
The case of the 20 abducted is triggering reactions in Egyptian society and in the Coptic Church. A demonstration, summoned today by the families of the kidnapped in front of the seat of the Foreign Ministry to urge the Government to stronger action for the release of the hostages has been postponed. Meanwhile, a delegation of tribal Egyptian leaders has traveled to Libya to start negotiations with local tribal leaders and obtain the release of the hostages. While President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi phoned Coptic Patriarch Tawadros II to ensure that institutions and Egyptian apparatuses are permanently mobilized for a rapid release of the abducted Copts. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 05/01/2015)