Egyptians renew social media calls for anti-government protests

Social media users in Egypt have rallied online as a second wave of protesters took to the streets this month ostensibly venting frustrations over the government's decision to hand over two Rea Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

Thousands of police and soldiers were deployed on Monday across the Egyptian capital ahead of planned demonstrations, following the arrests of hundreds of youth activists and journalists in recent days.

After April 15 demonstrations saw about 2,000 people protesting in downtown Cairo and around the country over the islands, authorities warned that security forces would deal firmly with Monday's protesters.

Before the protests kicked off, social media users took to Twitter to encourage people to leave their homes and head to the streets on Sinai Liberation Day, a national holiday marking the completion of Israel's withdrawal from the peninsula in 1982.

The banned April 6 Youth Movement has led the call for renewed protests.

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Translation: "The 25th scares, horrifies and enrages [the government]. Protesting is a duty and obligation for the sake of the people detained in the land protests."

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Translation: "We all stand together against the regime. The revolution belongs to the people and oppression has affected everyone. We won't get our land and our rights back unless we are united."

Many users used the Arabic-language hashtag #IDidn'tVoteForSisi to condemn the general-turned-president who came to power in 2013 following a military coup against the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammad Morsi.

Twitter Post

Translation: "We all stand together against the regime. The revolution belongs to the people and oppression has affected everyone. We won't get our land and our rights back unless we are united."

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Translation: "It's an honour that I didn't vote for Sisi and that I am boycotting their absurdity."

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Translation: "Are we going to fool ourselves? Who voted for him? He came into power on the back of a tank."

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Translation: "We want to thank Sisi for reuniting a large amount of Egyptians of different political affiliations into a single cause, which is land."

During the protests, chants of "leave," and "the people want to bring down the regime" rang out in the downtown area, harkening back to the 2011 uprising that forced autocrat Hosni Mubarak to step down after nearly 30 years in power.