Egyptian Christian Shot in Libya Near Death

ICC Note: An Egyptian working in Libya remains in critical condition after he was shot on March 2. Salama Fawzy Tobia was working as a produce salesman in Benghazi. This was the second attack on Egyptian Christians in the span of a few days. There has been an increase in the targeting of Christians by extremists in Libya in recent weeks. Many Egyptians have gone to Libya to find work, but now it is becoming increasingly dangerous for those who can be identified as Christians.
03/10/2014 Libya (Morning Star News) – The family of an Egyptian Christian shot in Libya on March 2 says he remains close to death in a hospital in Egypt.
The shooting of Salama Fawzy Tobia, 23, in Benghazi, Libya came a week after suspected Islamic extremists killed seven other Egyptian Christians in the Libyan capital. Tobia remained in intensive care today in El Raey El Saleh Hospital in Samalut, Minya Province with a bullet wound to his head, barely holding on to life, relatives told Morning Star News.
On Saturday (March 8) his family decided to move him from a hospital in Alexandria to the hospital closer to home so he could spend the last moments of his life surrounded by loved ones, they said. Tobia suffered extensive brain damage and his family said the prognosis was grim. They have asked for Christians around the world to pray for him.
“I pray for God’s will to be done,” Tobia’s older brother, Karam Fawzy Tobia, told Morning Star News. “If He wants him to live on Earth, we will be happy. If it is His will to take him to heaven, we will accept this.”
Gunmen attacked Tobia at a produce stall in Benghazi. According to human rights activists, an unknown number of gunmen approached him and shot him at least once in the head while he was unloading fruits and vegetables. Tobia was taken from the scene to a hospital in Benghazi, where doctors treated him. Soon after his arrival at the hospital, numerous news outlets began reporting erroneously that he had died in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
The shooting was just the beginning of the ordeal for Tobia and his family. When they found out that he had been shot but was still alive, they wanted him moved to a hospital in Egypt so he could be treated in his own country. They appealed to the Egyptian government to transport him back to Egypt, but the request was denied, Tobia said.
“We requested a plane from the government to transport him to Egypt, but they didn’t do anything,” he said. “So we had to transport him in an ambulance all the way from Libya to Egypt. And because he was on the road for 14 hours, his condition got worse.”
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