Major Disruption in Egypt After Cairo Fire on 7 July
Digital Darkness, War Cries, Conspiracy Theories and Ghosts of Mubarak
A severe disruption temporarily paralysed daily life across Egypt from Monday evening (7th July) onward, following a fire at Ramses Central—a key telecommunications and internet exchange hub in central Cairo.
The blaze claimed the lives of four engineers and caused significant outages to communications, internet services, and related infrastructure across multiple governorates. Cairo International Airport experienced flight delays, while banking services and the stock market were also severely impacted.
The fire originated in a seventh-floor equipment room of the 11-storey facility before spreading across multiple floors. It raged for several hours, resulting in four fatalities and 27 injuries among staff.
The Impact:
Banks reported severe disruption, with ATMs affected.
Flights were affected, although not severely.
Egypt's stock exchange closed on July 8.
Broadband and internet services were operating at 60% of their usual capacity.
Government services were affected, with many reportedly closed for the day.
Banking applications—including InstaPay, which enables real-time transfers and consolidated account access via mobile—suffered severe disruptions. As of 9 July, lingering outages continued to affect some services.
Government Pledge
Communications Minister Amr Talaat, who inspected the site late on Monday, pledged a gradual restoration of all services within 24 hours. He confirmed that operations had been diverted to alternative exchange centres to create a backup network.
Minister Talaat denied claims that Egypt solely relies on Ramses Central as its primary communications hub, noting that the damaged facility would remain offline for several days.
Televised footage of 8 July repairs sparked backlash for apparent safety violations and haphazard workmanship, with social media users decrying crews as ‘dangerously amateurish’.
Infrastructure Rage Erupts: Beyond the smoke, fury over billions squandered while a 1927 relic burned
Social media ignited with scathing critiques of a government drowning Egypt in debt to fund vanity projects—a desert capital, "revamped" infrastructure—while historic Ramses Central (inaugurated by King Fuad I, 25 May 1927) remained the nation’s primary telecom spine. The question echoed online: "Where did billions of $ vanish if not to replace this century-old firetrap?"
War Hawks Mocked as Delusional
Pro-war voices demanding Egypt "storm Jerusalem" faced brutal ridicule. Users highlighted the fire’s lesson: a single incident paralysed the nation. One comment distilled the mood:
Enter Alaa Mubarak: The Prophetic Recording and the anti-Israel, anti-US conspiracy theories
On 8 July, user Ahmed Zein El-Din jolted the discourse by tweeting a leaked audio clip at Alaa Mubarak (son of the late president). In it, Hosni Mubarak explicitly rejects a $270 million U.S. offer to link Cairo’s telecommunications network to Ramses Central. In the recording, Mubarak warned that this would give Israel access to all of Cairo’s telecommunications network and could easily lead to crippling the network with one strike. Ahmed asked the President’s son whether the recording was AI or real.
Ahmed asked if the tape was genuine, Alaa’s now-deleted reply was damning: "Real."