CAIRO — Egyptian authorities began a steady advance on the streets of downtown Cairo last August, evacuating unauthorized street vendors and retaking main arteries and squares. The move is part of a project spearheaded by the Cairo governorate to clear the city from street vendors by enforcing the rule of law and displacing thousands.

“There are 5 [million] or 6 million street vendors in Egypt, around 3 million are in Cairo,” Mohamed Abdallah, the head of the independent national syndicate for street vendors of west Cairo, told Al-Monitor.

The authorities marched into Ramses Square on April 26, equipped with bulldozers, to remove the vendors. The state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported that the governor of Cairo, Jalal Mustafa Saeed, was present, instructing police officers who were directing traffic to enforce the law firmly on everyone without exceptions and to arrest those who resisted.

Abdallah, who represents 3,000 street vendors, chose Ahmed Helmy as the new site for the vendors after negotiations with the governor, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Urban Development. However, Ahmed Helmy — a parking area behind the central railway station in Ramses Square — can only accommodate 550 of the 1,250 street vendors of Ramses Square.