Egypt’s army and police have lost 3,277 men fighting militants since 2013, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has revealed.
The Egyptian leader said the police and army also saw 12,280 service members sustain injuries that prevented them from returning to active service.
This is the first time any Egyptian government official has given a figure for the number of army and police personnel killed or injured in the years-long battle against militants based in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
The war against the militants in northern Sinai has been waged with barely any media access to the rugged region bordering Gaza and Israel, with the army the sole source of information on operations there.
The militants have for years fought against the Egyptian government, but the number of attacks spiked after the 2013 ousting of an Islamist president by the military, led by Mr El Sisi, who was defence minister at the time.
The removal of Mohammed Morsi of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood took place amid mass street protests against his divisive one-year rule.
“I am citing these (casualty) figures lest people forget now that things have quietened down in Sinai,” Mr El Sisi said.
“This country paid a very high price to get to where it is now.”
The army also spent a billion pounds every month on the fight against terrorism from 2013 to 201
The number of attacks in Sinai and elsewhere in Egypt has dramatically dropped in the four years since the army launched a major offensive against militants in Sinai.
“We have settled the issue there, but the cost was very high. We will only declare the end of terrorism in Sinai when we have cleared all the roadside bombs there,” said Mr El Sisi.
The Egyptian leader’s comments were made following an iftar he hosted for several hundred people, including lawmakers, politicians, cabinet ministers and public figures.
A video recording of his comments was released several hours after the event.
Mr El Sisi used the televised event to order the start of a political dialogue on national “priorities” to which representatives of civil society, politicians and youth groups would be invited.
“There will be no exclusion or discrimination (against participants). The findings of the dialogue will be referred to me and I promise to personally attend its final sessions,” Mr El Sisi said.
“I personally wanted this to happen earlier but priorities led to its postponement.”
Mr El Sisi, who has made the economy and security his top priorities since taking office in 2014, gave no details on the aim of the proposed dialogue. He said its recommendations would be referred to parliament to be debated and turned into legislation, if necessary.
Since coming to office, he has led a high-octane and ambitious programme to modernise the country and overhaul its battered economy after years of turmoil in the wake of a 2011 popular uprising.
He has credited his economic reforms for weathering the economic slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic. He has said he is hopeful the economy would also survive the damaging fallout from the Ukraine war.
“We have an economic crisis on our hands, not a problem. The issue greater than the fallout from the Ukraine crisis is stability, security and safety,” he said.
Mr El Sisi’s government has taken a wide range of measures to mitigate the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war which, combined with higher energy prices and supply chain disruptions, has handed Egypt a serious economic crisis.
Egypt relies on Russia and Ukraine for 80 per cent of its vital wheat imports. The war also halted the arrival of visitors from the two warring nations, dealing a body blow to a tourism sector still recovering from the impact of the pandemic.
Dealing with the fallout from the war, Egypt has devalued its currency by 15 per cent against the US dollar, banned the export of several essential foodstuffs and started contacts with the IMF that are likely to produce an agreement on a new set of reforms in exchange for a standby loan.
Egypt’s Gulf Arab allies have spent billions of dollars helping the country, including central bank deposits and investments.
On Tuesday night, Mr El Sisi announced a package of fresh measures to keep afloat the economy, which was shaken by the flight of billions of dollars over the past two months because of the uncertainty created by the Russia-Ukraine war.
He ordered his government to set a programme for the private sector’s participation in state-owned assets, with an annual target of $10 billion for four years, and the listing of army-owned enterprises on the Egyptian stock exchange before the year’s end.
He also ordered stakes in some state-owned companies to be sold.
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs: 2018 Infiniti QX80
Price: base / as tested: Dh335,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 400hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.1L / 100km
Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More coverage from the Future Forum
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
BACK%20TO%20ALEXANDRIA
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Favourite food: Fish and seafood
Favourite hobby: Socialising with friends
Favourite quote: You only get out what you put in!
Favourite country to visit: Italy
Favourite film: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Family: We all have one!
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
