CAIRO: Upon entering the sit-in on Magles al-Shaab street, the area has clearly turned into a bustling space with ambulances rushing in numerous directions, the cries of people ringing out and red and blue lights reflecting on several tents erected along the street. One tent has a sign pinned to its wall that reads “even food, you low lives.” At least 70 people have suffered from symptoms of what appears to be some form of food poisoning, but with other suspicious symptoms such as uncontrollable shivering, convulsions, the inability to control ones' body and one case was reported to see the person vomiting blood. Earlier in the evening, shortly after a mysterious woman dressed in niqab, the full body and face covering, arrived at the square with several plastic bags and started handing out hawawshi, or Egyptian-style meatloaf, to the protesters, hundreds started vomiting and experienced food-poisoning of an unknown origin. Sources from inside the sit-in told Bikyamasr.com that a 19-year-old young man had died in the Qasr el-Aini hospital after eating the food. Later in the evening, reports surfaced that the man had not died, but instead passed out due to excessive vomiting of blood. As Bikyamasr.com reporters were at the scene, at least two men came out of the street, carried by others while vomiting on themselves. One of the two men was experiencing what appeared to be a full body convulsion or seizure, making the three men carrying him stop and attempt to get him to the ambulance once again. A makeshift field hospital was erected to treat urgent cases until ambulances arrived, but due to a lack of equipment, the doctors and medics are only able to deliver first aid. The protesters were having another challenge on their hands. “The woman arrived around 6:30 and because of our Egyptian spirit, we accept gifts and people started eating immediately,” Mohamed al-Mahalawy, a participant in the sit-in told Bikyamasr.com. He showed a meatloaf leftover from the meal. Poor looking and wrapped in aluminum foil, but nothing apparently dangerous about the food. “People started vomiting immediately and getting very strange symptoms. They were shaking like they were having a strong seizure,” he said. The protesters are accusing a still unknown party of poisoning them. “I blame Tantawy himself, and no one else, he is responsible for this,” Mahalawy added. Mohamed Tantawy is the head of the ruling military council that is leading the transitional period in Egypt, and whose image in graffiti next to the tent was inked with the caption “traitor” and the a noose encircling the image, which explains exactly how the activists feel about the Field Marshal. Mahalawy knows a thing or two about food. He owns a pizzeria in Hurghada, which now carries the sign “Hedad”, or mourning, in Arabic written on a piece of paper and glued to the now closed restaurant. “I traveled from Hurghada where I live to Cairo after seeing the pictures of the dead bodies piled on each other next to garbage,” Mahalawy describes of the famous image of several dead protesters' bodies in Tahrir Square being piled and tossed by the military and the police to one side of the street during the 6 days of clashes in late November that left over 70 people dead. The now famous image helped galvanize thousands into the iconic square, after it was shared on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Mahalawy's other companions at the tent nod in affirmation as to why they had joined the sit-in. He said police are now cracking down on the demonstrators, using food and toilets as weapons. “For days we were using the bathroom at a small mosque, but we were banned three days ago, then the gas station across the road stopped us from using their public facility and now we rely on other small, but a bit more far, mosques to use their washrooms,” he told Bikyamasr.com. The street is now home to hundreds of activists and fellow freedom fighters who left the comforts of their homes to make certain the January uprising is not “stolen by the military.” “I think it was not the military council trying to poison us, it was Feloul,” Mahalawy said, in reference to the now common term used for “remnants of the old Mubarak regime.” Feloul are often holding a grudge against the revolutionary youth who took down the regime. They were behind the bloody massacre on February 2 now dubbed the “Camel Battle,” in which men riding horses and camels stormed Tahrir Square armed with iron sticks, swords, knives and other weapons and started randomly ripping people off their feet. Dozens of protesters died that day and the investigations found that men loyal to the old regime, including former minister of information and Speaker of Parliament Safwat al-Sharif, with an A list of former politicians, who were de-rooted from their positions by the revolution, were responsible for the gruesome attack. Many across the sit-in are were loudly accusing Feloul and even naming names, saying they struck at a time when the country was busy with the second phase of the elections, yet others plainly accused the ministry of interior of attempting to kill them. They said the new Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim promised to disperse the sit-in without using force. This, they say, is the proof of that attempt. So far, the death of the young man has not been confirmed by the ministry of health, which has come out and said that 32 protesters arrived to hospitals suffering from food poisoning. Activists accuse the the hospitals of refusing to issue a report stating the cause of the illness, adding that they are only saying that the protesters suffered from stomach flu. While some have been treated and now enjoy the comforts of their homes, hundreds still plan to spend the night in the street, keeping their promise of liberating the country, “each square and street at a time.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/lmn6y Tags: Cabinet, featured, Food Poisoning, Occupy Cabinet, Protesters Section: Egypt, Health, Latest News
