Warraq Island residents say they are not asking for “something impossible,” but only for the allocation of a plot of land inside the island on which to build alternative housing in place of the homes the government has been seeking for years to demolish in favor of an investment project. Despite repeatedly presenting this demand to the relevant authorities, it has been refused every time, while residents say pressure continues on them to force them to vacate their homes, which they describe as “forced eviction.”
In the latest developments of the crisis, now extending into its ninth year, hundreds of island residents organized a sit-in on a recent Tuesday morning in front of the city authority, protesting the disregard for their demands, which they had submitted approximately a week earlier. According to participants, the authority closed its doors since morning and no official came out to meet them, while security forces intensified their presence around the sit-in.
The “Staying on Warraq Island” campaign, launched by residents in mid-August, said in a statement that thousands of residents headed to the New Warraq City Authority awaiting a response to their demands, foremost of which was the allocation of a plot of land inside the island for building fully serviced residential units for Warraq’s residents. The statement added that security agencies asked the residents to choose a specific group to speak on their behalf and enter the authority’s premises to meet an official, but residents refused, insisting on obtaining a written and official response to all their demands as stated in their memorandum, and the waiting period extended without any official appearing or providing a response.
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One Demand: Remaining Inside the Island
Residents and lawyers who spoke to Zawia3 agree that the primary demand now is the allocation of approximately 300 feddans inside the island on which residents can build according to conditions set by the government represented by the New Urban Communities Authority, with the remaining area left for the state’s projects. Over nine years, the government has refused this demand, while residents consider it a compulsion to sell and forced eviction under what they describe as continuous security pressures.
One member of the Warraq Island Families Council, who preferred not to be named, told Zawia3 that the requested area of approximately 300 feddans may increase or decrease based on subsequent studies of residents’ numbers, but what matters most is government agreement on the principle and not forcing residents to leave or sell. Regarding the recent action, he explains that officials did not meet with residents, but asked them to choose a group to meet with, which residents refused, seeing in this a repetition of a recurring scenario over the years, referring to the Families Council that he says has lost its effectiveness due to the government’s non-responsiveness, adding: “We asked people and they said: are we going back to the beginning again? We have been living the same story for nine years,” rejecting the proposal and demanding a direct meeting with officials.
He explains that residents had previously organized several gatherings to unite their ranks and engage with the state in an organized manner, but they would end each time with the situation being defused through meetings with security bodies that produced no clear results, before residents would back down and disperse. This time, however, they refused that and demanded a written response. According to his account, officials stalled and left residents waiting before departing, and residents then organized a march through the island passing by ministry-affiliated projects and sites where work had stopped, chanting slogans opposing forced displacement and compulsory sale, and they await a new meeting on Friday that will form the basis of their next action.
One of the lawyers, also a member of the Families Council, agrees with him, affirming that the most important demand is not leaving the island, and pointing out that the government promotes what is happening as a “voluntary sale” while imposing, according to him, a blockade and strict security restrictions. He says that since 2022 the only hospital serving residents, along with the youth center and post office, has been demolished, and three of the five ferries serving the island have been closed, yet people remain attached to their homes. He notes that the city authority, established in September 2018, does not have the powers to address the crisis, because the file’s management is handled by security agencies, specifically National Security in coordination with Giza Governorate, telling Zawia3: “Security leadership held meetings with residents and tried to contain the crises, yet the state has been seeking since 2017 to acquire as large a portion of the land area as possible, not all of it, while residents demand stability, the right to remain, and the ability to benefit from any development.”
One of the residents, a university professor who preferred not to be named, explains that the management of the file proceeded in the absence of direct dialogue between residents and the relevant ministries, foremost among them Housing, Local Development, and the Prime Minister’s office, and that on-the-ground negotiation was assigned primarily to security agencies, with a number of meetings held inside security premises. He argues that this confined the security mediation role to calming and containing protests, without planning or executive powers enabling a response to core demands or the presentation of sustainable development alternatives. He points out that residents submitted proposals for developing the island that preserve their presence and the nature of their community, including the allocation of approximately 300 feddans for urban replanning in a manner suited to the rural character and residential privacy, with the remaining area left for the state to exploit commercially.
The lawyer says: “The state can set conditions guaranteeing the project’s urban framework, residents move to stable housing without leaving the island at all, and the state gets the rest of the area without dispute, but any proposal we put forward is met with different responses: sometimes they raise prices, other times they suggest alternative housing, then they speak of alternative units inside the island, all solutions that do not serve the residents’ real interests.” He adds: “We seek to exit the crisis with rational, fair solutions. We live on our private property protected by the constitution and the law, and we will not relinquish our legitimate rights,” calling for any agreement to be documented in an official decision from the President or Prime Minister, with detailed planning for what is agreed upon, so the crisis ends and all parties can feel secure.
The Recent Escalation of Events
Clashes renewed during August over the restrictions on the entry of construction materials. On August 2, clashes broke out near the Al-Qilali ferry after residents objected to the procedures restricting the entry of construction materials, resulting in the injury of at least two people, before renewing the following day after a resident’s car was searched for construction materials. The crisis escalated into a sit-in demanding permission to bring in materials and improved services, before being suspended following negotiations with security leadership and promises to establish a mechanism regulating entry. However, the New Warraq Island Development Authority denied on August 12 allowing any construction materials or supplies to pass into the island, affirming the continuation of existing controls and that government development projects are proceeding according to their announced plans.
Residents say that the policy of restricting construction materials applied over recent years has prevented them from repairing or rebuilding their homes, while government construction continues inside the island, and that ferries have been converted into checkpoints preventing the entry of bricks, sand, and cement, making any attempt at renovation a recurring source of friction with security.
Warraq Island is the largest of the Nile’s islands in area, at approximately 1,500 feddans, of which approximately 1,200 feddans are high-quality agricultural land. Its residents, estimated by an American University in Cairo study at approximately 120,000 people, depend primarily on vegetable farming and fishing for their income.
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Ownership Dating Back Hundreds of Years
Warraq Island residents affirm that the promotion of the land as reverting to state ownership is incorrect, insisting it is private property for which they hold contracts, some signed more than a hundred years ago. One resident told Zawia3 that the roots of the dispute trace back to the 1990s when the island was classified among the Nile’s islands considered natural reserves, despite the existence of a stable residential community comprising homes, schools, mosques, churches, and services. Residents point out that much of the island’s land consists of private properties, with some families holding documented contracts dating back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including contracts dated 1902. They say that government officials acknowledged in previous statements the existence of private properties inside the island, considering this a basis for their position rejecting the dispossession of their properties or their transfer outside the island.
Residents insist on the proposal of allocating 300 to 400 feddans for establishing a residential community for them, with the rest of the area exploited for state projects, affirming that they do not reject development in principle, but reject its proceeding at the expense of their properties or resulting in their transfer outside the island. They object to the compensation offered as insufficient to purchase suitable alternative housing given rising property prices. They affirm that their attachment to the land has not weakened despite pressures and the purchase and demolition of thousands of homes, that the residential mass is still intact, and that their connection to the place does not relate solely to ownership but to a deeply rooted social and family network that makes their core demand staying and obtaining fair housing inside the island rather than being transferred to distant new cities.
Regarding the numbers who remain attached to their homes, one member of the Families Council explains that a large portion of the extensive agricultural properties belonged to people who did not reside on the island and leased them to residents, and that some of these had sold their properties, with their lands passing to the state. He considers that the current issue does not relate merely to land ownership, since “the state has already acquired many lands and started building, and there are those who sold their homes,” but to the residential mass that still exists and which the state wants to conclude the project around.
He argues that this does not require evicting residents, affirming that they offer solutions that do not conflict with development plans, giving an example: “I live in a house of 200 square meters; give me 200 square meters and tell me to build according to specific conditions. I am not accustomed to living in an apartment inside a building among other residents.” He explains that the issue does not relate solely to the size of the housing but to the nature of the rural life residents are accustomed to, where a family may live in one house alongside married sons with space and privacy around the home. He says the plans presented have not taken into account the residents’ nature or social composition, and that authorities treated the island like any other area: “Maspero Triangle had approximately four thousand people, Ard Al-Lewa had thousands, but here we are talking about approximately one hundred thousand people, and almost all of them are standing as one.”
He argues that the misestimation of the nature of the local community led plans to be built on the assumption that residents would ultimately leave through compensation, enticement, or threat, but affirms that this assumption is no longer realistic given residents’ growing awareness of the place’s value and land prices and their realization that they live in the middle of the Nile at the heart of Cairo. He affirms that their refusal does not mean opposition to development or investment: “We are not against development or against the country benefiting financially, but we want a solution that allows people to stay.” He argues that the core of the problem is that the state views the island as land available for replanning, while its residents view it as an existing community with extended social relationships. He cites the experience of the Nubian community at the time of the High Dam’s construction, when a complete city was built for them with their names and suited to the nature of their lives, into which they were then transferred, considering that Warraq’s residents are calling for a similar principle that preserves their community as guaranteed by the constitution and the law.
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The Roots of the Crisis
The roots of the crisis trace back to 1998 when a decision was issued designating Warraq Island a natural reserve, which raised residents’ suspicions about the intention to evict the island, followed by a decision by the Prime Minister in 2001 subjecting the island to the state property law, from which point legal disputes between residents and the state began. Residents say they obtained in 2002 a court ruling in their favor regarding ownership of lands on the island, according to previous Zawia3 documentation. In 2010 the government announced the demarcation of the administrative boundaries of five governorates including Giza, encompassing Warraq, and drew up a plan for the island’s development, before matters calmed for a few years following the removal of former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime (1981-2011).
In July 2017, the crisis escalated when security forces attempted to implement demolition orders built on the premise that the lands were state property, met with broad popular resistance during which one resident died from injuries sustained. Since then, the island has been under tight security surveillance, residents began organizing sporadic protests, popular committees were formed to defend the island, the hashtag “#Warraq_Is_Not_For_Sale” was launched, and residents refused to leave their homes or accept compensation they considered below the true value of the land and its location.
In 2018, the transfer of the island’s file to the New Urban Communities Authority was announced, which began purchasing lands from residents at prices ranging between 6,000 and 12,000 Egyptian pounds ($115.39 to $230.77) per square meter, after the Engineering Authority had completed building a corniche on the western bank. These procedures indicate the state’s proceeding with a comprehensive development of the island, while residents say they were not included in a clear plan. The authorities, in contrast, rely on Law No. 7 of 1991 on state private properties and Law No. 144 of 2017 on the regularization of unauthorized occupation, which observers consider the basis for eviction if residents do not regularize their situations according to state procedures. Residents argue that these two laws did not take into account the island’s particularity as a permanent residential community of deeply rooted families, with many of them saying they hold documented sale and purchase contracts dating back to the 1940s, alongside informal title deeds and registered contracts, which makes the ownership question a matter of legal dispute.
According to published maps attributed to the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, the island’s development project encompasses a major investment zone referred to as “Horus City,” comprising residential towers, hotels, and a business district. The State Information Service described the project as aiming to transform the island into a global commercial center covering 1,516 feddans at a total cost of 17.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($336.54 million), encompassing eight investment zones, a commercial zone, premium housing, a central park, a tourist marina, a riverside frontage, a cultural zone, and a tourist corniche, without the name “Horus” appearing in official statements, or any publicly announced details about the resettlement of residents. The same maps appeared in Al-Watan and other outlets, reinforcing residents’ suspicions that the objective is to convert the island into a major real estate project.
In September 2024, security forces barred the entry of construction materials through the ferries, leading to congestion and tensions. Rights organizations, among them the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, documented incidents they described as violations, including arrests and excessive use of force. On the official side, the Giza Governor and Housing Ministry officials affirmed that the island’s development project falls within a national plan to develop Nile islands, and that the state is committed to providing alternative units and fair compensation and does not seek forced displacement. The Council of Ministers also issued a statement in November 2024 affirming that “the state does not confiscate anyone’s property, but applies the law to violators.” In contrast, residents and rights organizations, among them the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, argue that the absence of publicly announced details about compensation and the failure to involve residents in the decision increase tensions and raise questions about compliance with international standards for voluntary relocation.
After nine years of confrontation, Warraq Island’s crisis does not appear to be linked to residents’ rejection of development so much as to the state’s capacity to develop the area without compelling its residents to evacuate. While the state proceeds with its urban and investment project, affirming that it does not seek forced displacement, residents insist on a demand they consider feasible: the allocation of a limited area inside the island to rebuild their homes according to government conditions, with the remaining area left for development projects.
