Egypt’s FM follows up on kidnapping expat in Nigeria

CAIRO – 13 October 2018: Ongoing talks between Egypt’s Ministry Of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian authorities are currently taking place regarding the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian national in Nigeria named Reda Sayed Hassanein.

According to statement issued by Foreign Ministry on Thursday, it was affirmed that the government is communicating with the Egyptian national family along with the authorities to guarantee Hassanein’s safety and to bring him back to home as soon as possible.

Last July, two assault incidents for Egyptian expats in Kuwait and Italy were announced to being investigated by Egypt’s government.

In Kuwait, an Egyptian citizen named Ahmed Fayez Hassan was reportedly assaulted by a Kuwaiti soldier. A video of the accident went viral on social media and caused a lot of controversy among social media users; the government launched an investigation and found that the assault took place in one of the cell phone shops.

According to official statements issued then by the government, it was stated that the incident started when a Kuwaiti woman came to the shop, where the Egyptian expat is working, and asked him to repair her cell phone. After getting all the work done, the woman did not have enough money to pay for the service she already received, so she gave him (the Egyptian worker) only half of the required amount of money, and asked him to keep her ID until she pays the rest of the required amount. The Egyptian worker refused, saying that he is not authorized to accept her offer, “I just work here,” he explained.

The Egyptian citizen had to call the police and the woman called her brother- the soldier. When the brother arrived to the shop, he assaulted the Egyptian worker according to his claims.

In Italy, another fight took place between two Egyptian expats, in which one of them set himself on fire in a suicide attempt. The Egyptian expat was hospitalized and the investigation is still underway.