An Egyptian Christian boy murdered on 13 April was killed by Islamic extremists hoping to further intimidate Christians in the run up to Easter, say his family.
Allam Bashay Gabriel found his 16-year-old son, Gamal, with his throat slit and lying in a pool of blood, in Qai village, Upper Egypt. This took place four days after two Egyptian churches were bombed and on the same day that three Christian homes were burnt down in Minya.
Mr Gabriel said he suspected his son was killed by members of the Islamic State group. In February, the group said it wanted to ‘wipe out’ Egypt’s Copts. A spate of killings of Copts then followed in the North Sinai Governorate, leading to a mass exodus of Copts from El-Arish, the main town there.
