Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Egyptian telecommunications giant Orascom Telecom (OT), announced at a Tuesday press conference that the headquarters of the company’s Algeria operations (Djezzy) — along with a mobile phone factory — has been burnt down by enraged Algerian football fans following Egypt’s victory in Saturday’s World Cup playoff match against Algeria.
Sawiris also said that some 80,000 mobile-phone handsets worth a total of $5 million had been stolen from the company’s factory, with preliminary estimates putting total losses in the tens of millions of dollars.
"Although the factory was insured against rioting, I’m not sure the insurance company will consider what happened a riot," Sawiris said, adding that he had been intending to sell the factory before the incident. "But now I don’t know if there’s anything left to sell."
Sawiris went on to say that two call centers owned by Algerian nationals had also been destroyed by hooligans simply because they had provided services to Djezzy.
"Our 20 employees are afraid to leave their homes lest they be assaulted," he said. "I call on the Algerian authorities to protect them and the 15 million subscribers we have in the country."
"The Egyptian government cannot do more than it already has to protect Egyptian investments in Algeria," Sawiris added. "The question now is what will happen if Egypt wins the decisive match with Algeria in Sudan on Wednesday."
On rumors that he had dispatched 15 planes at his own expense to fly Egyptian fans to Sudan for the big game, Sawiris said: "It’s absurd to put a company like Djezzy, which boasts US$4 billion in investments, at risk for a mere football match."
"Irrespective of whether the story is true, however, I have the right to support my national team," he said, holding privately-owned media agencies in both countries responsible for having blown the issue out of proportion.
"It’s preposterous that a football match would jeopardize the historical relationship between two people who once fought together for common goals," Sawiris said, adding that Egypt had been the first to invest in Algeria when no one else was interested in the impoverished North African nation.
"President Hosni Mubarak is too busy," he said. "I can’t ask him to interfere, although I know he always defends Egypt’s interests."
"Had the decision been mine, I would have postponed the upcoming match until things calmed down," Sawiris added.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
