Shoukry said authorities are in the midst of an “impartial inquiry” led by Egypt’s prime minister.
“I am profoundly anxious that some people have chosen to exploit this tragedy to argue that officials in charge of enforcing the law in Egypt don’t count with the proper protocols for action and that they acted in an indiscriminate manner, and that they did not take the necessary precautions during their operations”, he said.
Mexico’s ambassador to Egypt said six Mexicans were still unaccounted for while a woman and a man were confirmed dead.
Pena Nieto reiterated Mexico’s call for a “swift and in-depth” investigation to determine who was responsible for shelling the group.
Reina Torres, director of the ministry’s department for protecting nationals overseas , said Monday the wounded were in “stable” conditions, and at least one of them would be released from hospital in the coming hours.
A desert guide who witnessed Egyptian forces mistakenly open fire on Mexican tourists on safari says the case appeared to have been linked to the kidnapping of a local resident by militants two days earlier.
Rachael Stewart, a business partner of Rafael Bejarano who lives in San Clemente, Calif., said the tour group of around 15 people was organized by Bejarano’s mother, Marisela, who is recovering from wounds sustained in the attack. Egyptian officials say security forces mistook the tourists for terrorists and fired on the group.
In the statement, the ministry also claimed the vehicles had traveled in a restricted area that was “off limits to foreign tourists”.
Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu visited survivors Wednesday at a Cairo hospital, later meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and her counterpart Sameh Shoukry. “Why was the tourism ministry not notified so it could coordinate with the tourism companies?”
According to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, the USA government has recently supplied Egypt with F-16 fighter jets, Apache helicopters, Fast Missile Craft, armored vehicles, and “other weapons systems in support of Egyptian military capabilities in the fight against terrorism”.
The incident, among the deadliest involving tourists in Egypt, comes as the country is trying to revive its vital tourism industry after the turmoil following the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
But in recent months, militants loyal to the Islamic State group have carried out attacks in more central parts of the country.
Egypt has promised to publish the findings of a report into the killings of Mexican tourists and Egyptian civilians by its own security forces as they picnicked in the desert near the Oasis of Farafra.
The convoy had “no information that this region is banned, no warning signs, and no instructions from checkpoints on the road”, said Mr Hassan el-Nahla, the chairman of the General Union of Tourist Guides. Police and military there have primarily been concerned with combatting smuggling along Egypt’s border with Libya.