In Sudan’s fresh minted revolution it is not only the country’s old military guard, once associated with the deposed former president Omar al-Bashir, whom protesters view with deep suspicion.
Last week the Egyptian embassy in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, was also the scene of protests and chants aimed at President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. “Tell Sisi,” the crowd shouted. “This is Sudan! [Egypt’s] borders stop at Aswan!”
Continue reading...The warlord Khalifa Haftar, who controls eastern Libya, has never disguised his ambitions. Once one of Muammar Gaddafi’s generals, he returned from exile in the US when the dictator fell in 2011, attempted to launch a coup three years later, repeatedly declared his intention to take Tripoli and has said that his country may not be ready for democracy.
So the professions of shock from his backers when he mounted his assault on the western capital, held by the internationally recognised Government of National Accord, cannot be treated with great seriousness. The only real surprise about his advance was its timing. By moving while the UN secretary-general was in the country, to discuss arrangements for a UN-organised conference intended to lead to elections, he destroyed muted hopes of a political solution and underscored his already evident contempt for the process. As the prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, complained, the response of many supposed allies was silence.
Continue reading...Voters given food boxes to back constitutional changes that could extend Sisi rule to 2030
Supporters of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi have claimed victory after almost 90% of Egyptian voters backed sweeping constitutional changes that could result in him ruling until 2030.
Election officials claimed 88.8% of voters had confirmed the changes, with a turnout of 44%. The results overhaul the 2014 constitution: they extend presidential term limits to six years, allowing Sisi to run for re-election in 2024; expand presidential control over the judiciary, and enshrine the military’s role in politics.
Continue reading...Voting in referendum to begin just four days after MPs backed constitutional changes
Egyptians are due to vote in a referendum that is expected to confirm sweeping changes to the constitution and could allow President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi to remain in power until 2030.
The rush to the ballot boxes was triggered when 531 out of 596 members of parliament backed the constitutional amendments on Tuesday. The national electoral commission declared the next day that the public vote would begin on Saturday.
Continue reading...MPs back longer presidential term of six years, while public opposition is suppressed
The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, moved a step closer to extending his rule after lawmakers approved sweeping constitutional amendments that could enable him to remain in power until 2030.
The proposed changes lengthen presidential terms to six years instead of four, including Sisi’s current mandate. They also increase his control over the judiciary and confirm the military’s role in politics.
Continue reading...President Sisi is playing cat and mouse with us, shutting down our websites and blocking our social media but we won’t give in
As the world watches the peaceful revolution that is changing Sudan in awe and amazement, it is clear that in Egypt, Sudan’s neighbour to the north, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi is getting nervous. On the same day as the protests in Khartoum reached a head, several of us who oppose Sisi’s autocratic rule launched an online petition to declare any result from Tuesday’s referendum on proposed constitutional amendments “void”.
Among the amendments Sisi is trying to force on the Egyptian people is a provision that could allow him to remain in power until 2030. The amendments would also increase the control of the military, which would be given powers to police the political sphere in Egypt. They would also give Sisi control over the appointment of judges and the public prosecutor.
Continue reading...MPs to vote on granting president control over judiciary and boosting military power
Egypt’s parliament is to vote on a bill of sweeping constitutional changes this week that would increase President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s power and allow him to rule until 2030.
MPs are expected to overwhelmingly confirm the bill on Tuesday, triggering a referendum. The proposed reforms, which were moved swiftly through committee hearings and parliamentary debates, would grant Sisi control over the judiciary, increase the military’s political power and extend presidential terms to six years.
Continue reading...Warlord also understood to have private support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE
Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan warlord bombarding Tripoli in an attempt to oust the country’s UN-recognised government, has won unequivocal support from the Egyptian leader, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, his closest political ally.
“The president affirmed Egypt’s support in efforts to fight terrorism and extremist militias to achieve security and stability for Libyan citizens throughout the country,” Sisi’s office said on Sunday.
Continue reading...Four Bedouin women are leading tours in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, breaking new ground in a deeply conservative community where women almost never work outside the home or interact with outsiders.
Continue reading...Recently discovered tomb of official dating back more than 2,000 years contains dozens of animals and two mummies
Dozens of mummified mice were among the animals found in an ancient Egyptian tomb that was unveiled on Friday.
The well-preserved and finely painted tomb near the Egyptian town of Sohag – a desert area near the Nile about 390km (242 miles) south of Cairo – is thought to be from the early Ptolemaic period, dating back more than 2,000 years.
Continue reading...The scenes of jubilation on the streets of Algeria on Tuesday night had vivid, almost uncanny echoes of events in the region eight years ago. A wave of protest in a youthful country has ousted an ageing, authoritarian leader who clung to power for years, at the head of a regime perpetuating a clientelist and unequal economy. The ailing 82-year-old president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, finally succumbed after weeks of protests, sparked by the announcement of his candidacy for a fifth term despite reports that he struggled even to speak.
The country’s oil wealth is drying up, reducing the government’s ability to temper popular discontent via state spending; over a quarter of its youth are unemployed; corruption is endemic. But it was the regime’s sheer contempt for its citizens in nominating a man who has barely been seen in public since a 2013 stroke, and the sense of national humiliation, which brought hundreds of thousands on to the streets. Those behind him hope that his departure will allow them to continue as before. Their opponents, now emboldened by victory, demand real change.
Continue reading...It is difficult not to marvel at the scale of Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal achievement. Israel’s prime minister celebrates 10 consecutive years in power on 31 March. His country’s youngest-ever leader in 1996, he has been re-elected three times since 2009, matching David Ben-Gurion’s record. As matters stand, he has a good chance of winning again in polls on 9 April.
Netanyahu’s political achievement is altogether less marvellous. Under his grimly negative, fearful tutelage, Israeli society has shifted steadily rightwards. Attitudes to a peace settlement with the Palestinians have perceptibly hardened. Thanks in large part to Netanyahu’s uncompromising stance, the issue no longer occupies centre stage as it once did.
Continue reading...Journalist Osama Gaweesh, who took part in Arab spring, still waiting for Home Office decision
Sitting in a cafe in Ipswich, Osama Gaweesh recalls how he took part in the Arab spring that saw Hosni Mubarak deposed as president of Egypt.
“The revolution’s demands were for human dignity, social justice and a democratic state. We achieved that,” he says.
Continue reading...Britain is Egypt’s largest foreign investor. Yet at the recent Arab-EU summit, Theresa May was oddly quiet on rights abuses
While there may be “a special place in hell” for those who backed Brexit without a plan, regimes that execute people after fundamentally flawed trials get their own summit. Just a fortnight ago, Donald Tusk and the leaders of the EU met with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, at the Arab-EU summit in Sharm el-Sheikh – days after his regime executed nine people.
The summit was co-chaired by Tusk and Sisi. Tusk and other European leaders, including Theresa May, were curiously silent at the summit about the fate of Egypt’s political prisoners. The execution of the nine – convicted after unfair trials in which human rights campaigners say confessions were elicited by torture – was the third consecutive week of executions. In total 15 people were put to death in February in Egypt.
Continue reading...The Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, better known as Shawkan, was jailed in 2013 for reporting on anti-government protests. Today, after almost six years, he was finally released. 'I feel like I am flying,' he said as he was reunited with family and friends
Continue reading...Xavier Bettel says his same-sex marriage would condemn him to death in some countries
Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, has confronted Arab leaders over the repression of gay rights, telling them his same-sex marriage would condemn him to death in some of their countries.
The conference room at a summit of EU and Arab states fell silent when Bettel made his statement, according to a German TV journalist.
Continue reading...At least 25 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a train crashed at high speed into a barrier at Cairo’s main station, causing its fuel tank to explode and triggering a huge fire.
Egypt’s transport minister, Hisham Arafat, resigned hours after the prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, promised a tough response if any negligence was found. Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with chronic transport problems and poorly maintained railway lines.
Continue reading...Prime minister announced aid package at EU-Arab League talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
Theresa May has pledged £200m to help victims of the war in Yemen as she called for an end to the “crisis and suffering” caused by civil war.
The prime minister announced the aid package as she arrived for EU talks in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. “We are playing our part and will continue to do so but there is still more that we as an international community can do,” she said. “At the summit in Egypt, I will call on our partners in Europe and the region to continue to provide the aid that is so desperately needed.”
Continue reading...Days after Egypt executed men who said they were tortured into confessions of killing the country’s former top prosecutor, Europe’s heads of state are enjoying the hospitality of its president. The resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is hosting the inaugural summit of the European Union and the Arab League. Donald Tusk, president of the European council, is co-chairing with Abdel Fatah al-Sisi; Britain’s Theresa May is among the guests.
If the event itself is a first, the approach is familiar. As Mr Sisi entrenches his rule, presiding over what Human Rights Watch calls Egypt’s worst human rights crisis in decades, European countries murmur about their “quiet diplomacy” on such issues. Then they carry on building ties and providing the air of international legitimacy that he needs given his grim record since seizing power in 2013’s coup. Mr Sisi’s recent spate of executions is instructive: he must have felt confident there would be no repercussions for putting people to death so close to the summit – despite their blatantly unfair trials.
Continue reading...Project aims to recoup lost tourism income since downing of Russian plane in Sinai
Egyptian authorities have started work on a concrete barrier around the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, which has struggled to attract tourists since a Russian passenger jet crashed in the region shortly after taking off in 2015 in a terrorism-linked attack, killing 224 people.
Related: Egyptian president says Russian plane was deliberately downed
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