Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto has urged Egypt to conduct an exhaustive investigation on the killing of two Mexican tourists by Egyptian forces who mistook them for jihadists.
The foreign ministry said that the Mexican ambassador to Egypt visited five other nationals being treated at the Dar al-Fouad Hospital in the western Cairo suburb, where they were listed to be in stable conditions.
Egypt’s interior ministry said that the security forces killed 12 people and wounded at least 10 others, including Mexicans and Egyptians who were travelling in four pick-up trucks in the Western Desert.
The ministry said that the Mexicans had drifted off to an area that is off-limits to foreign tourists.
Peña Nieto said that he had ordered his foreign ministry to deploy more diplomats to Egypt to assist the victims and their families.
Foreign minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu is scheduled to give a press conference on the incident later on today.
The cast desert region is not only popular with tourists but is also a militant hideout.
