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Podcast: Sahel and North Africa week in review 7 Jan 2023
Greetings to our second episode of Week in Review and a quick summary of what we are tracking in the Sahel and in North Africa. Today is Saturday, the 7th of January 2023. This past week was somewhat subdued in the region largely due to the year-end holiday season and...
Egypt starts the year with a disastrous economic environment and social tension
By Mona Salem and Sarah Benhaida: Public anger has been growing for months in Egypt over a severe dollar crunch and soaring food prices. But for many a money-saving tip from a state body has been the last straw. As families have struggled to purchase household...
Egypt: Actress Menna Shalabi sentenced to three years in prison for ‘cannabis possession’
Popular Egyptian actor Menna Shalabi was found guilty Thursday for cannabis possession and handed a suspended one-year jail sentence and a fine, in a case that drew widespread attention. Shalabi, the first Egyptian to be nominated for an International Emmy Award in...
Egypt: IS claims attack in Ismailia that killed three policemen
The Islamic State group said Saturday that it carried out a deadly attack on an Egyptian police checkpoint in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia the previous day. "A cell of soldiers of the caliphate managed to attack an Egyptian police roadblock... with a machine gun,"...
Egypt: Stolen sarcophagus lid returns to Egypt
Egypt announced Monday the recovery of a sarcophagus lid dating back nearly 2,700 years that it said had been smuggled out and put on display at a museum in the United States. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry announced the recovery of the artefact, known as the...
Egypt: Three policemen killed, others wounded in attack in Suez Canal city
Three Egyptian policemen were killed and four others, including a police officer, wounded Friday in an attack in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, security and medical sources said. Two cars approached a checkpoint in a residential neighbourhood of the city and two...
Egypt: Part of stadium in south Cairo collapses, 27 injured
At least 27 people were injured on Saturday when part of a sports stadium south of Cairo collapsed during a basketball match, Egypt's health ministry said. Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said "27 people were injured, some with fractures and bleeding," adding...
Egypt: Suez Canal chief seeks to dispel fears over draft Egypt law
The chairman of Egypt's Suez Canal on Thursday affirmed the waterway is "not for sale", in a bid to allay fears over a draft law under discussion in parliament. On Tuesday the legislature approved in principle a bill proposed by the government seeking to establish a...
Egypt: Businessman Mohamed al-Amin dies in prison
Egyptian businessman Mohamed el-Amin has died while serving a three-year sentence for trafficking and sexually assaulting girls at an orphanage he had founded, his lawyer and a lawmaker said Sunday. The former media and real estate tycoon was transferred to hospital...
Egypt: Lawyers, pharmacists, doctors angry at new electronic invoicing system
In a rare public show of protest in Egypt, "thousands of lawyers" staged a demonstration at their union in central Cairo Monday, prominent lawyer Tarek al-Awady said. After a smaller protest was held Thursday, lawyers assembled again in droves Monday to protest a new...
Egyptians expect more hardship as Cairo gets $3 billion loan from IMF. Currency value plunges 17%
Egypt has clinched a $3 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund conditioned on a currency depreciation and state subsidy cuts, the government said Thursday. The Egyptian pound shed 17 percent of its value against the dollar after the staff agreement was...
Egypt releases activist Zyad el-Elaimy as it prepares to host global climate conference
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned a former parliamentarian, lawyer and key activist from the 2011 revolt who has been jailed for the past three years, officials said Monday. Zyad el-Elaimy, 42, arrested in June 2019 on charges of fomenting "unrest...
Egypt’s newest prisons considered “cruel and inhuman” by rights activists
One of Egypt's newest prisons, presented as a model by authorities, has only replicated "cruel and inhuman conditions" in facilities previously used to house political opponents, Amnesty International said Thursday. Amnesty secretary general Agnes Callamard accused...
Saudi Arabia jails Egyptian men for attempt to organize remembrance event for the 1973 Arab-Israeli war
A Saudi judge on Monday sentenced 10 Egyptian men for up to 18 years for having tried to organise a remembrance event for the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, two relatives told AFP. The men, from Egypt's Nubian minority group, were found guilty of trying to establish a...
Egypt replants mangrove ‘treasure’ to fight climate change impacts
By Bahira Amin: On Egypt's Red Sea coast, fish swim among thousands of newly planted mangroves, part of a programme to boost biodiversity, protect coastlines and fight climate change and its impacts. After decades of destruction that saw the mangroves cleared, all...
US pressured to use its influence to advance human rights in the Arab world
By Inès Bel Aiba: Relatives of imprisoned or recently released activists in the Middle East, including in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, urged the United States this week to use its influence to secure progress on human rights in those countries. Their talks in Washington...
Environment: Rights and environmental groups say Egypt is not fit to host major climate summit
A month before Egypt hosts the UN climate change conference, Cairo is finalising the list of world leaders coming as it weathers criticism over its human rights and environmental records. Cairo voiced disappointment that King Charles III, a long-time champion of the...
Egypt: As it prepares for major climate summit, Egypt criticized for “growing repression of dissent”
Egyptian authorities "have continued to stifle freedoms" in the year since launching a national human rights strategy, Amnesty International said Wednesday, six weeks before Egypt hosts the COP27 climate summit. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi launched the rights...
Defense: US offers more military aid to Egypt
President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday approved most military aid to Egypt for a second straight year despite concerns on human rights, pointing to limited progress, officials said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken finalized a package of $1.17 billion for...
Egypt: Mada Masr journalists facing legal troubles for allegedly “spreading false information”
The editor-in-chief and three journalists from independent Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr were interrogated by judicial officers on Wednesday for allegedly "spreading false information", the publication said on Twitter. Mada Masr head Lina Attalah and journalists Rana...
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