CAIRO — Scattered protests calling for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt to step down broke out in multiple Egyptian cities on Friday afternoon, marking the second Friday in a row of rare, though small, demonstrations challenging his authoritarian rule.

The protests did not match last week’s in number or size, at least partly a result of how fiercely the Egyptian government had moved to smother them.

Mr. el-Sisi, who landed in Cairo Friday morning after a weeklong trip to the United Nations, appeared to be taking no chances.

Security officers dispersed protests in the Cairo neighborhood of Warraq and the city of Giza, planted themselves at major intersections, stopped and searched cars, buses and passers-by, and shut down the capital’s downtown shopping district.