Aisha Mohamed still remembers what happened two years ago when hundreds of protesters were killed by security forces in eastern Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square.
"Though two years have passed, I still remember what happened as if it took place yesterday," Mohamed told Anadolu Agency on Friday.
Mohamed recalls that she was sleeping inside her tent at the square when calls came out for supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi to gather.
"I was sick, but gathered myself and got out with my mother to see what was happening," she said.
Minutes later, the tent was burned down as Egyptian security forces began to clear the sit-in.
"There were horrific scenes everywhere. Children were dying and suffocating from tear gas while women were encouraging youth to hold their ground," Mohamed said.
As barrages of bullets began to ring around them, Mohamed took her mother to look for cover. "We ran toward the mosque – where a field hospital was set up – to find hundreds of corpses lying there."
Suddenly, flames of fire began to rise from the field hospital as security forces pushed deep into the protest camp. Amid the panic, Mohamed lost her mother.
"I kept looking for an exit from the square until we found one where security forces lined up, pointing their weapons at us," Mohamed said.
Amid the mayhem, Mohamed searched for her mother and father among scores of the dead bodies of protesters, but to no avail. Later, Mohamed reunited with her mother and father, who found their way out from the square and traveled to their home in the coastal city of Alexandria.
Hundreds of pro-Morsi demonstrators were killed when security forces violently dispersed their protest camps in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square and Giza's Nahda Square on Aug. 14, 2013, only weeks after Morsi was ousted in a military coup.
According to the National Human Rights Council, the dispersal of both protest camps that day left 632 people, including eight policemen, dead.
But the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy, Morsi's main support bloc and the sit-in's main organizer, said thousands were killed in the dispersal.
In a report based on a year-long investigation, Human Rights Watch said last year that at least 817 demonstrators were killed in Rabaa and 87 were killed in Nahda.
Judgment day
For Esraa, the horrific scenes of the forced dispersal still haunt her two years after the breakup. "I can't forget it. It's engraved in [my] memory," she said.
Esraa recounts that protesters began to distribute bottles of water and vinegar to be used to help ease the impact of the tear gas fired by security forces.
"We also set up field hospitals to provide first aid to the injured," she added.
Amany Mohamed said the situation at the Rabaa sit-in looked like "Judgment Day".
"I fell unconscious several times because of the tear gas," she said. "I was also about to lose my five-year-old child."
Amid the panic, Mohamed rushed to the field hospital to provide help to the injured. "I helped until we heard that the hospital was burning while we were inside," she said.
Eman Kamel, 32, was injured in the violent breakup of the Rabaa sit-in.
"I and two of my friends decided to stay [at the sit-in] in order to calm children, believing that what's happening was nothing but mere skirmishes," Kamel, an engineer, said.
As time passed, children began to lose consciousness due to the tear gas.
As security forces pushed deep into the sit-in, Kamel was shot in the leg and fell unconscious.
"[The breakup] will always remain engraved in my memory," she said.
Egypt has been roiled by violence and turmoil since Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, was removed from power by the military on July 3, 2013 following protests against his rule.
Since Morsi's overthrow, Egyptian authorities have carried out a relentless crackdown on dissent that has mainly targeted the ousted president’s supporters, leaving hundreds dead and thousands behind bars.
PHOTO CAPTION
A large crowd gathered in New York City on August 14 calling for justice for the people who died in the Rabaa Massacre.
AA