Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will receive Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu in Cairo following the accidental killing of Mexican tourists on a safari trip in Egypt on Sunday, the presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.
Massieu arrived early on Wednesday at Cairo International Airport along with six Mexican diplomats and 19 family members of the deceased tourists, Al Ahram Arabic news website reported.
Massieu also visited some of the injured Mexican tourists in Dar Al-Fouad hospital in Giza.
Eight Mexicans were confirmed dead according to Mexican officials, while Egyptian authorities have said that a total of 12 people were killed and 10 wounded on Sunday after security forces fired on the group of tourists by mistake while searching for militants in the Western Desert.
"We face a terrible loss of human life and an unjustified attack that obligates us to make the protection of our citizens a priority," Massieu told reporters at Mexico City's international airport before travelling to Cairo.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday evening apologised to the people of Mexico for the accident in an open letter published on the foreign ministry’s official Facebook page. The letter will also be published in major Mexican newspapers on Wednesday.
Shoukry said in the letter, titled “An Open Letter from Egypt to the People of Mexico”, that “Egypt can understand the grief the Mexicans are feeling as Egyptians have seen numerous innocent civilian lives lost due to terrorist violence.”
“The chain of events is still confusing and unclear," the letter reads. "There have been reports, many of them conflicting, regarding whether the tourist convoy had the necessary permits, whether it had taken a detour to a restricted area, and whether the use of SUVs instead of a tourist bus had increased the risk of mistaken identification.”
“My own thoughts and prayers, as well as those of the Egyptian people and government are with the people of Mexico and the families of the victims of this sad event, both Mexican and Egyptian,” Shoukry wrote.
