Egypt's parliament summons communications minister over deadly Cairo fire amid public outcry

The National

08-07-2025

Egypt 's parliament sharply criticised the government on Tuesday over its handling of a fire at the Ramses Central telecoms hub in Cairo, an incident that killed four people and caused widespread disruption to internet, phone and financial services.
In a televised address during Parliament's general session on Tuesday, Speaker Hanafy Gebaly summoned Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat to appear before lawmakers. The decision was taken after a large number of official complaints were submitted by MPs, he said.
'It is the minister's responsibility to appear before parliament immediately after such a major incident, to explain what happened,' Mr Gebaly said.
He added that Mr Talaat 'should have been the first person' to attend the session and that his failure to do so undermined transparency. During the session, MPs also demanded accountability and urgent action.
One MP, Diaa El Din Dawoud, described the response to the fire as a 'catastrophic failure' and accused the government of neglecting Egypt's telecoms infrastructure, despite significant investment in digital transformation projects. 'The entire country came to a halt because of a fire in one telecommunications hub,' Mr Dawoud said.
In his address, videos of which were widely shared on social media, he added that the fire exposed the fragility of Egypt's telecoms infrastructure. He questioned what happened to the funding allocated to digital transformation projects.
Amr Darwish, another MP, said a parliamentary committee should be set up to investigate the incident, while MP Ahmed Farghaly called for the senior officials to resign.
The Ramses fire, which started in a seventh-floor operations room on Monday evening, burnt for six hours before being contained. At least 39 people were injured, including firefighters, civil defence officials said.
The fire caused significant disruption to critical services, with internet and phone connectivity across Cairo and parts of Giza severely affected. Financial services were also disrupted.
Services began to improve on Tuesday as other telecoms hubs across the country absorbed some of the load. Full restoration of services was expected by Wednesday morning.
Mr Gebaly directed the parliamentary communications committee to convene an emergency meeting with Mr Talaat to investigate the circumstances of the fire. Mr Gebaly said he would monitor the committee's findings and ensure they were shared with the public.
The scathing response from parliament came amid public criticism on social media. "What happened at Ramses Central exposes significant flaws in the protection and security systems of a sector that has long received substantial funding to maintain its services. It is both astonishing and regrettable that communications could fail and descend into chaos without any ready alternative plans in place," one X user said.
While parliament was debating the Ramses fire, a blaze broke out at a sponge factory in the industrial zone of New Damietta City, in the Nile Delta. There were no immediate reports of casualties.