CAIRO: According to Egyptian government officials there are over 5000 street children living in Cairo spread across a number of areas in the capital, local press reported on Monday. In recent years, street children have been the center of much debate, especially in 2008 after a man was charged with murder and rape after he was sentenced to jail for throwing street kids off trains in the country. According to Al Masry Al Youm, the majority of street kids congregate in areas near malls and restaurants across the city. Independent observers have often said the statistics are much higher than the government claims, although actual figures are difficult to come by as the city's homeless often move from one area to another. In a statement released by the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood's street children project, Nasr City tops the Cairo areas with street children, followed by its neighbor, Heliopolis. Qasr El Nil in downtown comes in as third, while the upscale Zamalek neighborhood – home to a large expatriot community – ranks last. “The National Council for Childhood and Motherhood conducted a survey in December 2007, on street children in four of the most dense areas suffering from this problem, and discovered they are Cairo, Alexandria, Giza and Qalyubiyah,” said Mushira Khattab, Minister of Population, in a statement, pointing out that the results figures were below expectations and common prior estimations. Most independent reports have stated an estimated one to two million street children live on Egyptian streets. Somaya Al Alfi , head of the Street Children Project at the council, stressed in comments to the leading independent newspaper that there are a number of international groups and NGOs operating in Egypt that “have an interest in exaggerating the number of these children in Egypt due to their access to financial funding” in order to support this issue. Alfi also denied the rumors about the World Bank estimation of street children in Egypt, which claimed there are two million street children in Egypt, asserting that that the bank had not done any surveys on this matter. Street kids in Egypt are subjected to routine harassment, violence and rape, local NGO's have reported. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
