At least 100,000 demonstrators held protests in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other cities in Egypt Friday, calling on the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down immediately. Friday’s ‘Day of Departure’ protests came after a group of Mubarak supporters attacked demonstrators with clubs, pipes and guns on Thursday, killing four.Friday’s protests were the largest since Tuesday, when a ‘Million Person march’ took place in Cairo, and continue the movement which began last week in Egypt, inspired by the uprising in Tunisia that caused that country’s President to resign.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has thus far refused to step down, saying that his departure would lead to ‘chaos’ in Egypt. He did announce Tuesday that he would not seek re-election in November, but the protesters continue to pour into the streets, demanding that he resign immediately.
Mubarak has been President of Egypt since 1981, and has, on several occasions, been accused of corruption, nepotism, and suppression of dissent.
After President Mubarak’s supporters launched an orchestrated attack on the largely non-violent anti-Mubarak protests on Thursday, US President Barack Obama issued a statement that the Egyptian President should step down ‘now’. Obama spoke again on Friday about the situation in Egypt, saying that he was glad that the Friday demonstration was a peaceful one.
