Ever since the civil war was over Yedder prepared to invade Egypt he did not waste any time and began to reunite his army, The Berber emperor reunited troops of every part of his empire, from the recently defeated tribal Berbers with their horses and camel archers/javelineers, there was a small contingent of also Hispanic rounded for their heavy cavalry and good infantry, Balearic slingers and some sub-Saharan African troops sent by his vassal Ghana.
But the main bulk of the force was the Cartago roman Berbers that had composed the best infantry in the empire the best javelineers and the one the best heavy cavalry in the empire and the Libyans with their famous archers and infantry.
Alongside them Yedder II brought the 50 of his elephants just in case there was a battle, also to show off his massive force, some 35 000 men went to invade Egypt, but it was already wintering 857, and his admiral, the old but highly respected Munatas, manage to convince him to wait for spring and he listens to him and used the time to rally some 6000 more men, once winter passed he moved once he arrived in Libya in late May he was reinforced by 4000 men making his total number 45 000 and 200 ships, 80 of them being warships.
Apacyrus ever since he founded had prepared his kingdom against the Berbers, since the Romans had been in crisis did not worry about them and only had to worry about the Berbers, he began to sell shipments of grain at inflated prices to the roman Berber empire, and Frankish kingdoms, he also tried to heavily tax the eastern goods, but due to the collapse of the Frankish empire and the decline of the roman empire, eastern goods where not being bought, as the trade moved more to the south with Aksum he still participated on it.
Apacyrus had supported Anir during the Berber civil war which gave Yedder II an excuse to attack the Copts, he expected this and had prepared more for an invasion ever since 855, he gathered his veterans and used his wealth to train more men, by 858 he could muster some 10 000 men to defend his capital, but this was not enough he hired 2000 Bedouin mercenaries, and due to his alliance with the king of Makuria Ioannes II, he sent 3000 men to the city, augmented his numbers to 15 000 , along with 100 ships , but even then he was outnumbered 3 to 1 and Yedder could get 30 000 more men to assist him, due to this he made an unpopular move and in may June he sent word to Heraclonas , to assist him , the emperor wanted to reconquer Egypt but knew his army was in no condition to do so , as there was barely enough to pay them right now much less transport them to Alexandria ,so he wanted to wait recover his empire to then reconquer Egypt, he was not excited to help the Copts but he recognized a Berber conquest would make things much worse , not only would it hamper his intention to reconquer Egypt but nothing assured the Berbers from stopping in Egypt and they could go for the Levant , he promised 2 000 men and some 80 ships to his cause .
In return the Copts would send free grain shipment for 10 years, by June 30 Yedder arrived at the city and began its siege, Apacyrus son James went to the bank of the Nile to prevent any crossing, to the surprise of the Copts Yedder had no intention to cross the Nile, as he was confident that he was going to win and boasted that within less than 2 months he would be crowned by the patriarch of Alexandria as lord of all Africa, but Yedder could not use all his troops since about 15 000 of them where cavalry, but still even with that he outnumbered the city garrison of 9000 by a wide margin, Apacyrus told his son to stay where he was just in case the Berbers attempted to cross.
The siege began with a general assault on the third of July, as the siege engines began to pound the walls then the Berbers began to use ladders to climb the city walls, while the copts used their own catapults and began used rocks, stones, and heated sand to attack the Berbers, hoy July heat also did not help the Berbers as some fell due to heat exhaustion, still once they arrived at the top, heavy fighting ensued for hours but the Copts managed to push them with high casualties for both sides but the copts pushed them back.
In late July the first attack on the harbor began, the small place and the choke point facilitated the defense of the city and the Coptic ships managed to drive them of but still the city was now cut off, another attack was sent 2 weeks later with no success for the Berbers.
By mid-September, the third attack on the harbor began, but the Byzantines had just arrived the Romans knew that the Berbers avoided close contact due to their greek fire so the Romans moved to the harbor and the Berbers began to retreat when they did the Romans sent 8 old warships, and despite heavy arrow fire, the ships continued to move, Munatas noticed this and retreated but it was to late the roman ships burned their ships with greek fire, as the ships made contact and the fire began to spread and burned down 50 enemy ships, many Berbers died in the fires or drowned, among them Munatas, that was a massive blow to their morale when the Berber ships moved the Byzantines landed on the harbor to the cheer of the Copts and local greeks of the city.
Seeing this situation,and as the second month of the siege arrived, the copts sent word to Yedder saying "You must hurry your "majesty"or you are going to be crowned by another patriarch " , time passed and winter had arrived luckily for the bebbers their ships brought food and supplies from Libya and other parts to keep the siege going, but it was not enough and they need it to collect the supplies of the Nile delta.
So in the 9th of February of 859, Yedder II sent 8000 of his cavalry to cross the Nile, but they were met by James who showered them with a rain of arrows as they continued to cross they met the copts Bedouins and Kushites who fought them off with fierce resistance, after hours of fighting, the Berbers retreated, do this the Berber emperor now sent 10 000 cavalrymen and 20 elephants, in dawn they began crossing with almost no resistance, the Berber commanders assumed that the copts retreated due to the heavy fighting of the previous day, in reality, they were waiting for them, once half the Berbers crossed they were attacked from the front by the Copts and Kushites and from the sides by the Bedouins, seeing this the Berbers panicked and retreated many were shot or drowned.
After this Yedder would not make any attempts to waste more of his troops to cross, as he sent word back to Carthage to gather more troops and waited, when spring arrived he still waited by may the 10 000 arrived with 40 supply ships, with that in late May 859, he launched another massive assault spearheaded by his elite Lybian infantry these fought the copts in a section and broke through and the Coptic the forces retreated, they only need it to wait for them to open the gates and they moved to do so and they did, but a fire close to the main gate began and most sources say it was the copts that started it, the fire prevented more troops to join
burned the and thus 5000 Libyans being stuck had no option but to win, but the Coptic Byzantine force won and most of the Libyans in the city were killed.
Despite this loss, Yedder by June planed another assault but an epidemic broke through his camp, and that forced him to stay put z time passed and the siege had reached its first year with no clear winners yet.