Warraq residents agree to negotiate with the state over housing offers

The “We Are Staying on Warraq Island” movement has agreed to open talks with the state over the fate of the island’s residents, and to form a committee from within its ranks to represent them. The decision followed approaches by National Security Agency officials to several residents, who were presented with a new proposal that would, in principle, allow the community to remain on the island, according to three founding members who spoke to Al Manassa.

The breakthrough signals a potential shift in the state’s protracted drive to redevelop the strategic Nile island, where resident resistance to forced relocation has repeatedly derailed government master plans. By offering land allocations on Warraq itself, officials are seeking to address long‑standing demands while pressing ahead with state‑backed infrastructure projects.

The group made the decision at a meeting Friday evening, attended by more than 1,000 island residents, to discuss whether to accept negotiations. The group had earlier rejected talks unless the state first agreed to its main demand, the principle of “a house for a house.”

The residents use that demand to mean giving them the right to build replacement homes on the island in exchange for their current homes, rather than limiting them to housing outside the island or apartments in government housing projects.

According to the three sources, the group received an offer several days ago from representatives of the National Security Agency that would allow residents of the “residential block” area to remain in their homes, while giving residents of “outlying” areas, where government projects are concentrated, three options: replacement housing outside the island, apartments in the residential towers being built by the state, or plots of land on which to build in areas within the “residential block” that have come under government ownership.

Last year, former head of the New Warraq City Authority Osama Shawky proposed a plan to keep residents of the residential block in their homes, on an area of about 300 feddans (1.26 square kilometers). For the outlying areas, which cover most of the island and have a lower population density, Shawky proposed apartments in government residential towers instead of residents’ current homes. Residents rejected the offer.

In theory, the new proposal would allow all Warraq residents to remain on the island, rather than limiting those who can stay to residents of the residential block.

But two of the three sources said implementing the proposal could face challenges because the size of the residential block may not be sufficient for the number of residents, particularly if a large number of people from the outlying areas choose to remain on the island.

The proposal itself was not discussed at Friday’s meeting, according to the two sources. The meeting focused solely on whether to enter negotiations with the state and ended with approval for talks and the formation of a committee from the group’s members to represent it.

The residents’ approval to negotiate does not amount to a final acceptance of the state’s offer. No date has yet been set for the committee to meet with the National Security Agency, and the details of the negotiations and the group’s final position on the proposal have not been settled.

The decision to negotiate comes days after residents rejected talks at an expanded meeting held on the Friday before last, which ended with a decision to reject any negotiations with state officials unless the state first agreed to the “a house for a house” demand.

Some Warraq residents oppose the idea of moving to replacement apartments, arguing that their current homes are different from housing units because island homes often accommodate extended families and provide more space for living and construction.

The meeting on the Friday before last also resolved that negotiations should be limited to representatives of the presidency, the Cabinet, or the National Security Agency, while rejecting negotiations with the New Warraq City Development Authority after it failed to respond to requests presented several days earlier for the allocation of a plot of land for building their homes and another for services, as well as refusing to meet with them.