(AFP (eng) 01/24/18)
Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday formally submitted his candidacy for presidential elections in March that he looks certain to dominate as a string of potential challengers have dropped out. Sisi, who was elected president in 2014 a year after heading the military ouster of Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi, on Friday confirmed he would be seeking a second four-year term. Sisi is the only candidate so far to officially submit an application to the National Election Authority for the March 26-28 election, the third since strongman Hosni Mubarak was toppled by a 2011 uprising. Hopefuls must register by January 29, but a number of possible Sisi opponents have already either ruled themselves out or been targeted for prosecution. On...
(AFP (eng) 01/23/18)
The International Monetary Fund declared Egypt's economic outlook "favourable" on Tuesday after completing its second review of the country's reform programme. The IMF had approved in November 2016 a $12-billion loan to Egypt, which has been shaken by political and economic turmoil since longtime president Hosni Mubarak was toppled in the 2011 revolt. In order to obtain the IMF's approval for the three-year loan, Cairo has implemented a set of drastic reforms including the adoption of a value-added tax, energy subsidy cuts and floating the pound. "The reforms that have been undertaken so far have been well-implemented and we are beginning to see the pay-off from these reforms," said Subir Lall, head of the IMF's mission for Egypt. "We think...
(AFP (eng) 01/23/18)
Another potential challenger to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appeared in danger Tuesday of dropping out of the election race after he was accused of breaking the law with his candidacy announcement. The allegations against General Sami Anan, a former armed forces chief of staff, mean that Sisi seems to be heading towards the March polls with most of his possible rivals already out of the running. The general command of the Egyptian armed forces, in a video posted on Facebook, accused Anan of crimes including forgery. Anan's campaign team said he had been arrested. While there was no official confirmation of that, the armed forces said in the video that "all legal procedures must be followed regarding infractions and...
(Reuters (Eng) 01/23/18)
CAIRO (Reuters) - The last challenger seen as a potential threat to the re-election of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was detained on Tuesday, and halted his campaign after the army accused him of breaking the law by running for office without permission. Former military chief of staff Lieutenant General Sami Anan, who had announced his candidacy last week, was taken to the Military Prosecutor’s office in Cairo, according to his son and one of his lawyers, who were waiting outside the building. An army statement read aloud on state TV said Anan’s presidential bid amounted to “a serious breach of the laws of military service”, because as a military officer he was required to end his service and seek...
(AFP (eng) 01/22/18)
A former Egyptian armed forces chief of staff said on Saturday that he will challenge fellow military man Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for the presidency in March. General Sami Anan's announcement came just hours after Sisi publicly confirmed he would seek a second term in the March 26-28 election, the third since the 2011 overthrow of longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak. In a video posted on Facebook, Anan said he would seek to correct the "wrong policies" that had been adopted since Sisi ousted elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi when commander in chief in 2013. He said Egypt faced multiple challenges after the long years of turmoil...
(AFP (eng) 01/22/18)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Friday he would stand in a presidential election due to take place in March. "I announce to you in the honesty and transparency which we are used to... my candidacy for the post of president of the republic," Sisi said at a conference in Cairo, broadcast live on state television. Sisi is widely expected to win in the first round, set for March 26-28. Egypt's former army chief, Sisi was elected in 2014, a year after leading the military's ouster of his predecessor Mohamed Morsi amid mass protests against the Islamist's year-long rule. That was followed by a crackdown against thousands of Morsi supporters who demonstrated for weeks to demand his reinstatement. In August...
(AFP (eng) 01/22/18)
US Vice President Mike Pence held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi Saturday at the start of a delayed Middle East tour overshadowed by Arab anger over Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Controversy over President Donald Trump's decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem had led to the cancellation of a number of planned meetings ahead of the trip originally scheduled for December. The Palestinian leadership, already furious over the Jerusalem decision, has denounced the US administration and had already refused to meet Pence in December. A coalition of Arab parties in the Israeli parliament said Saturday it would boycott a speech by Pence on Monday, calling him "dangerous and messianic". Pence held talks...
(Reuters (Eng) 01/22/18)
KLEINARL, Austria (Reuters) - The chilly conditions on an Austrian mountainside belied the warm reception given to people from 15 African countries who took part in an annual luge race aimed at helping migrants integrate into European society. The event over the weekend, dubbed the African Winter Sports Cup, is a luge race contested by people with little or no experience of winter sports. Its aim, over the six years it has been held, is to promote social integration through sport, organizers said. The countries represented included Nigeria, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan. Some of the people taking part had come to Europe as asylum seekers while others were born on the continent. “We are all human, we have...
(AFP (eng) 01/19/18)
US Ambassador Nikki Haley expressed regret on Thursday to African ambassadors who were outraged by President Donald Trump's alleged description of African countries as "shithole" nations, the head of the African Group said. Haley asked to meet the African ambassadors at the United Nations after they released a joint statement on Friday demanding an apology from Trump for his "outrageous, racist and xenophobic remarks." Ambassador Anatolio Ndong Mba of Equatorial Guinea, who chairs the Africa Group, said the US ambassador did not offer an apology during the closed-door meeting, but she did express regret. Haley told the meeting that "she was not there at the White House, she is not sure what was said, but she regretted all this situation...
(AFP (eng) 01/18/18)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has fired his powerful intelligence chief, state media said Thursday, in the latest shake-up of the country's security services. Sisi appointed his chief-of-staff and close ally General Abbas Kamel as interim replacement for outgoing intelligence head General Khaled Fawzy, according to state media. No reason was given for the move, which comes ahead of presidential elections to be held in March. Sisi, who has run the country with an iron fist since 2014, has not yet officially declared himself a candidate, but he is widely expected to stand and win. A former army chief, Sisi was elected in 2014 a year after leading the military's overthrow of his predecessor Mohamed Morsi amid mass protests against...
(AFP (eng) 01/18/18)
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said Thursday at talks in Cairo they were opposed to any "conflict" over the sharing of Nile waters. Sisi said that Desalegn's visit was "a clear sign for our peoples and the entire world of our political will and determination to overcome all obstacles" between the two countries. The Nile should serve as "a source of cohesion... and development, not of conflict" with Ethiopia, which is building a controversial dam that has raised Egyptian concerns over water supplies, he said. "We agreed that we must make sure that this great river never becomes an object of competition, mistrust and conflict," Desalegn told a joint news conference. Sisi said Ethiopia...
(Reuters (Eng) 01/18/18)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged on Thursday not to let differences over a dam Ethiopia is building on the Nile river ruin relations with Addis Ababa. Ethiopia hopes the hydroelectric Grand Renaissance Dam will make it Africa’s largest power exporter. Egypt says it threatens its water supply which relies almost exclusively on the Nile that runs from Ethiopia through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. Addis Ababa says it will have no impact. Sisi said negotiations with its two African neighbors were progressing and said a deadlock over a disputed, ongoing study on the dam’s impact must end. “The Nile basin enjoys great resources and capabilities that makes it a source of interconnection, building and...
(AFP (eng) 01/17/18)
There's nothing covert about Roxy -- a huge market in Abidjan selling counterfeit medicine, the scourge of Africa and the cause of around 100,000 deaths annually on the world's poorest continent. Located in the bustling Adjame quarter of Ivory Coast's main city and commercial hub, the haven for fake medicine has been targeted time and again by authorities and stockpiles burnt. But it resurfaces every time. "The police hassle us but they themselves buy these medicines," said Mariam, one of the many mainly illiterate vendors who hawk everything from painkillers and antibiotics to anti-malaria and anti-retroviral treatments. "When we are harassed we always come to an arrangement with them to resume our activities," she said. Fatima, another hawker, said: "Many...
(Reuters (Eng) 01/16/18)
CAIRO (Reuters) - The nephew of assassinated Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat said on Monday he would not, as widely expected, challenge incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the presidential election because an environment of fear surrounds the vote. Sisi has yet to announce his candidacy but is widely expected to run and easily win a ballot slated for March 26-28. Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, whose uncle led a sweeping economic liberalization program and opened ties with Israel before his assassination in 1981, had previously said he was mulling a run. Though unlikely to upset Sisi’s campaign, it would have carried the weight of a household name likely to garner some support.
(Reuters (Eng) 01/16/18)
CAIRO (Reuters) - President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Monday Egypt is not conspiring against its neighbors and has no intention to fight, a reference to growing tension with Sudan. Relations have deteriorated in recent weeks, including over a Sudan-Turkey naval agreement that angered Cairo and an ongoing dispute over a dam Ethiopia is building on the Nile river that runs through all three countries. In the latest move, Sudan recalled its ambassador to Egypt without saying when he might be back. “Let’s always look for peace and development, our people need that. They don’t need us arguing and entering conflict,” Sisi said at an inauguration of new projects in the province of Monofeya. He said Egypt would not interfere...
(Reuters (Eng) 01/16/18)
CAIRO (Reuters) - A Cairo prosecutor referred two policemen to criminal court on Monday over the death of a detainee shortly after he was arrested on Jan. 5, judicial sources said. The prosecutor alleges the policemen beat Mohamed Abdul-Hakim to death and detained him without legal grounds. If they are charged, it will be a rare prosecution of members of the Egyptian security forces. Mohamed Abdul-Hakim, known to his friends and family as Afroto, died in hospital shortly after being arrested on suspicion of drug dealing. After his death, 43 people were arrested in clashes with security forces that broke out outside the Mokattam police station where he had been briefly held. A forensics report showed he died as a...
(AFP (eng) 01/15/18)
Mohamed Anwar Sadat, a dissident and nephew of Egypt's late president of the same name, said Monday he will not run in this year's presidential poll because the climate was not right for free elections. "I don't feel, and I am not assured, that the elections will be held in the form that we were hoping for... Therefore, we will not enter a losing battle," the former legislator told reporters in Cairo. Despite not yet having announced his own candidacy in the presidential race, incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is widely expected to stand and win in the first round, which is to be held March 26-28. Campaigning begins on February 24 and will last until March 23. Sisi, Egypt's former...
(AFP (eng) 01/15/18)
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi vowed Monday to protect Egypt's water supply while striving for peace with the Nile upstream countries of Sudan and Ethiopia, which is building a controversial dam. "Egypt will not go to war with its brothers," Sisi said on state television, although Cairo fears its water supply will be affected by Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry visited the Ethiopian capital last month for talks on the dam project on the Blue Nile. Egypt relies almost totally on the Nile for irrigation and drinking water, and says it has "historic rights" to the river, guaranteed by treaties from 1929 and 1959. Sisi also stressed that Egypt was investing in its military to protect national security...
(AFP (eng) 01/12/18)
The African Union said Friday that President Donald Trump's reported description of African nations as "shithole countries" broke with "accepted behaviour" and was "extremely upsetting." Ebba Kalondo, spokeswoman for AU Chairperson Moussa Faki, told AFP that Trump's statement "truly flies in the face of accepted behaviour and practice." "This is not only hurtful, I think, to people of African origin in the United States, but certainly to African citizens," she said. "It's an extremely upsetting statement," she added. The comment was reportedly made during a Thursday meeting with lawmakers about immigration reform...
(AFP (eng) 01/12/18)
President Donald Trump reportedly lashed out in a Thursday meeting with lawmakers about immigration reform, demanding to know why the US should accept citizens from what he called "shithole" countries. The comments, first reported by The Washington Post, sparked anger among Democrats and Republicans and revived questions about Trump's tendency to make racially charged remarks. Trump sat down with senators and congressmen at the White House to discuss a proposed bipartisan deal that would limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country, and restrict the green card visa lottery in exchange for shielding hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to people briefed...