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Tag: Egypt

  • Former presidential aspirant released from Egypt prison

    Former presidential aspirant released from Egypt prison

    Egyptian opposition figure Ahmed al-Tantawi has been released from prison, according to his lawyer, after serving a one-year sentence on charges of breaching electoral regulations.

    “Ahmed al-Tantawi was released, his  lawyer Khaled Ali wrote on X platform on Thursday.

    Al-Tantawi was seen as the only serious challenger to incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi in Egypt’s 2023 presidential elections, but he was eliminated from the race after failing to collect required endorsements to run.

    He accused the authorities and al-Sissi’s loyalists of obstructing his supporters.

    Shortly after, he was charged along with other members of his campaign.

    Al-Sissi first took office in 2014; one year after the army led by al-Sissi deposed Egypt’s democratically elected but divisive Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

    Al-Sissi was re-elected in 2018, before securing his third term in office with nearly 90 per cent of the vote in 2023, keeping him in power until at least 2030.

    Egypt has seen a crackdown on freedom of expression, with hundreds of secular activists and Islamists imprisoned or forced into exile, which has triggered an outcry from human rights advocates.

    According to political opponents, there have been no free elections since al-Sissi came to power, and all significant opposition has been suppressed.

  • 6 killed after tourist submarine sinks off Egyptian Red Sea coast

    6 killed after tourist submarine sinks off Egyptian Red Sea coast

    Six people were killed and nine injured when a tourist submarine sank off Egypt’s Red Sea coastal city of Hurghada, security and medical sources told dpa on Thursday.

    The tourist submarine, named Sindbad, was carrying 44 people of different nationalities on a cruise around the coral reefs in the Red Sea.

    The sources added that 29 people have been rescued with 21 ambulances dispatched to the scene.

    Russian Consul General in Hurghada, Viktor Voropayev, said that at least four Russian tourists were killed in the accident.

    He told the Russian state news agency (TASS) that a total of 45 Russian tourists, including a child, were on board the vessel.

    Another source, the Egyptian Security, said that the submarine suffered an engine failure, although investigations into the cause of the accident are ongoing.

    It said that of the original 44 people on board, 33 survivors have been rescued.

    “Several bodies were recovered while some people remain missing,” it said.

    Authorities said that a large wave, called Sea Story, hit the boat, and caused it to capsize.

    In November, a tourist boat capsized off the Egyptian Red Sea coast, near Marsa Alam city.

  • Cote d’Ivoire 2025: Flying Eagles face Egypt, S/Africa, Morocco

    Cote d’Ivoire 2025: Flying Eagles face Egypt, S/Africa, Morocco

    Nigeria’s U20 national team, the Flying Eagles, have been drawn to face Egypt, South Africa and Morocco in the group phase of the 2025 Africa U20 Cup of Nations (AFCON).

    The seven-time champions will engage the tough opponents in Group B of the tournament scheduled to be held in Cote d’Ivoire from April 26 to May 18.

    NAN reports that the Flying Eagles defeated Egypt 1-0 in the group stage, at the last edition of the competition.

    Hosts Cote d’Ivoire will slug it out with DR Congo, Ghana, Tanzania and the yet-to-emerge representative team of Central Africa zone, in a five-team group A.

    Holders Senegal head Group C, which also has Zambia and two debutants Kenya and Sierra Leone.

    The two top-placed teams in each group, alongside the best two third-placed finishers in the three groups, will advance to the championship’s quarter-finals.

    The full Groups:

    GROUP A: Cote d’Ivoire, UNNIFAC, DR Congo, Ghana, Tanzania

    GROUP B: Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Morocco

    GROUP C: Senegal, Zambia, Kenya, Sierra Leone.

  • Egypt announces reconstruction plan for Gaza

    Egypt announces reconstruction plan for Gaza

    In the face of pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, Egypt has announced its own reconstruction plan for the largely destroyed Gaza Strip.

    “Egypt expresses its aspiration to cooperate with the U.S. administration to achieve a comprehensive and just peace in the region by reaching a just settlement of the Palestinian.

    “This is the cause that upholds the rights of the region’s peoples,” said a statement by the Foreign Ministry in Cairo.

    The  statement went on to say that the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip must be carried out.

    “In a manner that ensures the Palestinian people remain in their homeland and aligns with their legitimate and legal rights.’’

    Egypt said a two-state solution, which provides for Israel and a Palestinian state to coexist as independent states, is “the only path to stability and coexistence among the region’s peoples.’’

    One week ago Trump proposed the U.S. take over and level the war-ruined coastal territory, resettle the nearly two million Palestinians living there.

    They were all engage in a massive rebuilding effort to create the riviera of the Middle East.

    Trump on Tuesday once again spoke of Gaza’s value in real estate terms, noting that it’s fronting on the sea.

    The U.S. president has said he expects to be able to strike a deal with Israel’s neighbours Egypt and Jordan for the relocation of the Palestinians.

    However, both countries have vehemently rejected the idea of accommodating Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

    The plan has sparked fierce criticism from Washington’s allies and adversaries alike, although Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has praised the idea.

    Jordan to take in 2,000 sick Gaza children – PM

    Meanwhile, Jordan is ready to receive 2,000 sick Gaza children for medical treatment, as the healthcare system in the coastal enclave has been devastated, Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan announced on Wednesday.

    Hassan reaffirmed Jordan’s clear and unwavering position that there should be no resettlement nor displacement of Palestinians.

    No solutions to the Palestinian issue should come at Jordan’s expense, Hassan said during a parliamentary session.

    Jordan would not act unilaterally on matters concerning the future of Palestine and the region, he added.

    He said that the country was working with Arab nations, alongside Egypt and Palestinians, to formulate a unified and clear Arab position on Gaza’s reconstruction.

    “Supporting Palestinians’ resilience and defending their just rights are at the core of Jordan’s efforts.

    “And a just resolution to the Palestinian cause based on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is the foundation of achieving regional security, stability and peace.”

    He added that Jordan’s stability and security, and the protection of its people, were paramount.

    Hassan’s remarks came a day after Jordanian King Abdullah II rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during his visit to Washington.

    Earlier, Trump had proposed that the U.S. should take control of Gaza and that the Palestinians be relocated to neighbouring Jordan and Egypt, which had been widely condemned.

    Trump later threatened that the U.S. “could conceivably withhold aid” from Jordan and Egypt if the two countries did not agree to receive Palestinians.

  • Trump moves to relocate Gaza residents to Egypt, Jordan

    Trump moves to relocate Gaza residents to Egypt, Jordan

     

    US President Donald Trump floated a plan on Saturday to “just clean out” Gaza, and said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take Palestinians from the territory in a bid to create Middle East peace.

    I’d like Egypt to take people. And I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

    “You’re talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know, over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts on that site. And I don’t know, something has to happen.”

    The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the war that began with Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

    Trump said moving Gaza’s inhabitants could be “temporarily or could be long term.”

    “It’s literally a demolition site right now, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there,” added Trump.

    “So I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”

    A fragile truce and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas — which was signed on the last day of former US president Joe Biden’s administration but which Trump has claimed credit for — has entered its second week.

    Trump’s new administration has promised “unwavering support” for Israel, without yet laying out details of its Middle East policy.

    Trump confirmed on Saturday that he had ordered the Pentagon to release a shipment of 2,000-lb bombs for Israel which was blocked by his predecessor Biden.

    “We released them. We released them today,” Trump said. “They paid for them and they’ve been waiting for them for a long time.”

    Israel’s retaliatory offensive has left much of the Palestinian territory in ruins, with infrastructure destroyed, and the United Nations estimates reconstruction will take many years.

    In October during his presidential campaign, former real estate developer Trump said that war-torn Gaza could be “better than Monaco” if it was “rebuilt the right way.”

    Trump’s son-in-law and former White House employee Jared Kushner suggested in February that Israel empty the Gaza of civilians to unlock the potential of its “waterfront property.”

    For Palestinians, any attempt to move them from Gaza would evoke dark historical memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba” or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation 75 years ago.

  • Egypt’s al-Sissi sworn in for third term

    Egypt’s al-Sissi sworn in for third term

    Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi was sworn in on Tuesday before parliament for a third term, in a ceremony held at the new administrative capital east of Cairo.

    Al-Sissi, who has been in power since 2014, secured another six years in office after receiving about 90 per cent of the vote in a December election.

    The election was overshadowed by the war in Gaza and a severe domestic economic crisis.

    Addressing parliament in a televised address, al-Sissi said that Egypt in recent years faced challenges of unmatched magnitude and intensity throughout its modern history.

    He said the challenges were due to internal destabilising attempts, global crises, and fierce international and regional wars.

    The president vowed to continue reforms and give a priority to “protecting Egypt’s national security amid a turbulent regional and international environment.”

    The new administrative capital, launched in 2015, is the flagship construction scheme in a string of mega-projects undertaken by al-Sissi.

    Many have blamed such projects for the economic crisis that hit Egypt in the past two years.

    In 2013, the army led by al-Sissi deposed Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s democratically elected but divisive Islamist president.

    The general-turned-president’s backers see him as a guarantor of stability amid regional turmoil.

    His critics blame him for the deteriorating economic situation and lack of freedoms.

    Since he came to power, thousands of secular activists and Islamists have been imprisoned or forced into exile, and the media scene has been mostly controlled by his loyalists.

    In recent months, the government had released dozens of detained dissidents.

  • 13th African Games: Impressive Egypt top medals table with wide margin, Nigeria on distant second position

    13th African Games: Impressive Egypt top medals table with wide margin, Nigeria on distant second position

    North African country, Egypt has led the medal standing at the ongoing All-African Games in Ghana from day 1.

    As of Friday afternoon, Egypt was still leading the medal standings through their impressive displays across various events, notably table tennis, swimming and wrestling.

    Egypt remain number one with a total of 175 medals (94 gold, 43 silver and 38 bronze) so far.

    Team Nigeria is placed a distant second behind Egypt with 98 medals (37 gold, 26 silver, and 35 bronze).

    Behind Nigeria is South Africa with 98 medals (29 gold, 30 silver and 39 bronze), Algeria with 99 medals (24 gold, 33 silver and 42 bronze) and Tunisia with 73 medals (18 gold, 22 silver and 33 bronze) are the countries that make up the top five.

    The host country Ghana presently occupy the sixth position with 50 medals (11 gold, 23 silver and 16 bronze).

    Morocco, Mauritius, Kenya and Eritrea complete the top 10 in the list so far.

    Others from 11-20 positions on the list are Ethiopia, Uganda, Madagascar, Niger, Cameroon, Senegal, Benin, Zimbabwe, Libya and Namibia.

    The African Games will end on Saturday March 23, 2024.

  • BREAKING: Egypt’s central bank hikes interest rates by 600 bps to record high of 27.25%

    BREAKING: Egypt’s central bank hikes interest rates by 600 bps to record high of 27.25%

    The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has hiked overnight deposit rate, the overnight lending rate, and the rate of the main operation by 600 basis points to 27.25 percent, 28.25 percent, and 27.75 percent, respectively.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports CBE on Wednesday also hiked Egypt’s discount rate by 600 basis points to 27.75 percent while acknowledging that the tighter stance could result in a short-term contraction in the private sector’s real credit growth.

    The apex bank, however, noted that the persistence of excessive inflationary pressures poses greater risks to its stability.

    TNG reports Egypt’s pound fell sharply against the dollar as the markets opened, tumbling past 40 pounds to the dollar from about 30.85 pounds previously.

    While the central bank has had an inflation target until now, it also sought to manage the pound, which has been fixed at 30.85 to the dollar over the past year as the central bank has sought to defend its value amid a chronic shortage of foreign currency.

    According to CBE, the measures were taken in the light of inflationary pressures driving headline inflation to record levels in the country.

    It further stated that the measures have been adopted as part of a set of comprehensive economic reforms in coordination with the government, and backed by the steadfast support of multilateral and bilateral partners.

    “The domestic economy has been recently weighed down by foreign exchange shortages resulting in the existence of a parallel exchange rate market and constraining economic growth.

    “Coinciding with this, external spillovers emanating from global inflationary pressures have continued to accumulate as the world economy witnesses successive shocks. Such shocks elevated risk-off sentiment and inflation expectations, amplifying underlying inflation.

    “The resulting exchange rate movements and significant passthrough of international commodity prices, coupled with domestic supply shocks, have resulted in persistent inflationary pressures driving headline inflation to record levels.

    “Accordingly, while annual inflation figures have been recently declining, they are expected to remain substantially above the Central Bank of Egypt’s inflation target of 7 percent (±2 percentage points) on average in 2024 Q4,” a statement released by CBE shortly after an emergency Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting reads.

  • Nigeria, Egypt lose matches at ongoing ITTF World Championship

    Nigeria, Egypt lose matches at ongoing ITTF World Championship

    Two of Africa’s representatives, Nigeria and Egypt have suffered defeats at the ongoing ITTF World Table Tennis Championships (WTTC) taking place in Busan, South Korea.

    A statement by Olalekan Okunsan, the Public Relations Officer (PRO), Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), stated that while Nigeria lost 0-3 to Chinese Taipei, Egypt were beaten 3-0 by Romania in their first group match.

    It would be recalled that there was a walkover of the Nigerian men’s team by Japan following the absence of Quadri Aruna and the late arrival of Bode Abiodun, in the country’s first match at the championship.

    Okusan stated that another African representative Algeria also lost to France in the men and women events, while South African ladies were no match to their Brazilian counterparts in their second match of the group.

    The loss of the four African representatives meant that the continent is still searching for their first win at the ongoing championships.

    “The Nigerian women’s team lost their second group match against Slovakia, while they were expected to take on Germany on Sunday, Feb. 18.

    “In their quest to record their first group win, the Nigerian men’s team will take on their African counterpart Madagascar in what promises to be brother-against-brother.

    “Egypt’s search for their first win will put them against Portugal in their second group match, while Algeria will rest in readiness for their tie against Denmark on Monday, Feb. 19,” Okusan said in the statement.

    Olajide Omotayo, a Nigerian table tennis player while reacting, described the absence of Aruna as a major set-back to the team while still nursing the ambition of advancing from the group.

    “It was very bad that we lost gallantly against Chinese Taipei, but sports can be like this sometimes and my partner just arrived in Korea, so he’s a bit tired.

    “Also, our key player is not here, and we can’t win every time. We’ll fight for the next match.

    “Chinese Taipei has very good and strong teams, and they have more experience and play really well.

    “For the next match, we need to go to sleep because I haven’t slept since I got to Korea,” the 2019 African Games champion said.

  • Olympics Qualifier: Team Nigeria wins 6 medals at weightlifting championship in Egypt

    Olympics Qualifier: Team Nigeria wins 6 medals at weightlifting championship in Egypt

    Team Nigeria weightlifters, Rafiatu Folashade Lawal and Adijat Adenike Olarinoye on Monday won six medals at the ongoing 2024 Africa Senior Weightlifting Championship in Egypt.

    Competing in the 59kg women’s category, Lawal and Adijat dominated the category as they carted away the top prizes on the first day of the championship which also serves as Paris 2024 Olympics qualifier.

    Lawal, gold medal winner in Tunisia last year, established her superiority in the category as she once again claimed all the available three gold medals.

    She won the first gold with a lift of 95kg in snatch, claimed another gold in clean and jerk with 119kg before winning her third gold medal in total, with 214kg.

    Adijat on her part, followed suit on her previous year’s outing as she claimed all the three silver medals with 94kg in snatch, 115kg in clean and jerk and 209kg in total.

    Meanwhile, Edidiong Umoafia Joseph will today at noon seek to consolidate Nigeria’s quest for more medals and a place in the Paris Olympics scheduled to begin in July, as he competes in the 73kg men’s category.

    Umoafia won a silver and two bronze medals at the Tunisia 2023 edition in spite of him competing with injury.

    Nigeria’s participation in the championship will be rounded off on Wednesday when Joy Eze Ogbonne competes in the 71kg women’s category.