The Egyptian government has launched a media campaign featuring prominent actors and footballers, urging people to stay at home and reduce energy consumption amid rising energy pressures linked to the war with Iran. However, the resulting restrictions have brought significant hardship for Egyptians.

Egyptians did not expect that the sound of explosions in a country on another continent, around 2,200 kilometres away, would leave the streets and neighbourhoods of Cairo, and cities across the country, in darkness.

At 9pm (later extended to 11pm), shops are closed, street lighting is switched off on public roads and on bridges and overpasses, while police vehicles patrol the streets and arrest those who defy the measures.

“It feels unsafe to walk through the streets of the Egyptian capital, as much of Cairo’s neighbourhoods and squares are in darkness, with packs of stray dogs roaming the streets.”

This is how Sayed Ibrahim, 60, described his experience of the blackouts. Egyptian TV host Amr Adib, who is known to be close to the authorities, also criticised the situation on air during his programme Al-Hekaya on the privately owned MBC Masr channel, saying: “There are many places in Cairo that look strange… the streetlights are off and the streets are pitch dark. Giza is dark… very dark.”

The blackout has been used politically to introduce harsh economic measures, driving up inflation and increasing hardship for Egyptians, and pushing new segments of society into a cycle of poverty and hardship.

The blackout has been used politically to introduce harsh economic measures, driving up inflation and increasing hardship for Egyptians, and pushing new segments of society into a cycle of poverty and hardship.

Less than two weeks after the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran on 28 February, the Egyptian government moved quickly to raise fuel and gas prices by 14 and 30 percent, marking the third increase in the past 12 months, according to a statement by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

Further increases followed, extending to railway and metro fares, which rose by 25 percent, according to Egypt’s Ministry of Transport.

READ: Egypt and the Gulf states: Sharp differences over the Iran war

The wave of price increases quickly extended to public and mass transit buses, rising by 8 to 14........

© Middle East Monitor