Of the few streets that lie perpendicular to each other in Ezbet al-Forn in Upper Egypt’s Minya Governorate, your surroundings vary depending on which one you choose to walk down.

The Coptic Archbishopric of Upper Egypt’s governorate of Minya released a statement on Sunday in which it said that four churches were closed during October and expressed condemnation towards the government for total inattention.

Calm returned to Ezbat al-Forn, of Abyouha village in Abu Qurqas city of Minya governorate on Monday, following skirmishes Sunday between Christians and Muslims.

Coptic Christians in Ezbat al-Forn, of the Abyouha village in Abu Qurqas city of Minya governorate, said Sunday that security forces prevented them from holding mass and daily prayers, as the church is not licensed.

Minya Criminal Court sentenced 12 defendants to death, 140 others to life imprisonment, including 9 in absentia, and two to 10 years for storming the Matay police station and killing Brigadier Mostafa al-Attar in August 2013, during riots that followed the dispersal of the Rabaa al-Adaweya and al-Nahda sit-ins.

Forty people were referred to military court in the southern city of Minya, 25 of whom are to be tried in absentia, according to comments Khalid al-Komy, the defendants’ lawyer, gave to al-Masry al-Youm. The first court session is scheduled for August 8, the military prosecution announced on Thursday.

Algerian intelligence sources said that Egypt is using the terrorist attack against Christians in Minya as an excuse to launch a premeditated attack in Libya.

Egypt officially notified the UN Security Council of its air strikes on extremist strongholds in Libya on Saturday, citing Article 51 of the UN charter – the right to self-defense after armed attacks occur.

The Mujahideen Shura Council in Derna (MSCD), a Libya-based Al-Qaeda affiliate, has issued a statement denying involvement in an attack on Coptic Christians traveling to a monastery in Minya on Friday.

Egypt president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that the attack on the bus transporting Coptic Christians in the western desert road aims at undermining the cohesion of the Egyptian state and people.