Fearing more terror attacks, Egypt churches suspend activities

CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s Coptic and Evangelical churches have suspended some of their activities for security reasons after a spate of jihadist attacks, church officials said on Thursday.

Conferences and church-organized trips will be suspended for three weeks after security services warned of more attempted attacks, said the Reverend Andrea Zaki, head of the Egyptian Evangelical Church.

“We are talking about conferences and travel for religious events, for three weeks, because we have information in cooperation with the responsible agencies that attempts to attack have been detected,” he told AFP.

Church services will not be affected, he said.

Coptic Church spokesman Bolus Halim confirmed the moratorium on some activities.

Since December, Islamic State group suicide bombers have targeted three Coptic churches, killing dozens of people.

And in May, IS claimed responsibility for shooting dead at least 28 Copts as they traveled to a monastery.

The jihadists have threatened to carry out further attacks on Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 90 million people.