Egypt’s interim VP announces resignation amid deadly crackdown

Egypt’s interim Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei has announced his resignation after violent crackdown by security forces claimed hundreds of lives across the North African country.

In his resignation letter to interim President Adly Mansour on Wednesday evening, ElBaradei wrote, “It has become difficult for me to continue bearing responsibility for decisions that I do not agree with and whose consequences I fear. I cannot bear the responsibility for one drop of blood.”

“Unfortunately those who gain from what happened today are those who call for violence and terror, the extremist groups,” he wrote.

ElBaradei has expressed regret over the loss of lives and has said he believed the tragedy could have been avoided.

The move comes after scores of people were killed in a bloody crackdown by security forces on supporters of ousted president, Mohamed Morsi.

Parts of the capital Cairo now resemble a battle zone after Egyptian forces stormed pro-Morsi camps.

According to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, at least 2,200 people were killed and 10,000 others injured in the crackdown by the Egyptian security forces on protest sit-ins held by Morsi supporters in Cairo.

The government, however, has put the death toll at nearly 90.

Meanwhile, the country’s leading Islamic authority, al-Azhar, condemned the deadly violence saying in a statement that “the use of violence has never been an alternative to a political solution.”

Earlier in the day, Egypt’s interim government declared a curfew in Cairo and 11 other provinces in an effort to control the deadly violence. The state of emergency is going to last for a month.

Tension has intensified in Egypt since July 3 when the Egyptian army removed Morsi from office. The army also suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament.

Hundreds of protesters, mostly Morsi’s supporters, have been killed or wounded during the unrelenting violence that erupted since the removal of Morsi.

On August 12, the Anti-Coup Pro-Democracy Alliance called on people to hold nationwide rallies to counter the military clampdown on their sit-ins.

The Egyptian army had earlier warned of taking action against pro-Morsi protesters.