Egypt

Egypt plans to drill 35 gas wells by 2025

29 August 2023; MEMO: Egypt plans to drill 35 gas wells by mid-2025, according to the country’s Petroleum Minister on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The drilling of the 35 wells will cost over $1.5 billion in investments, and aims to increase the country’s production and reserves,” Tarek El-Molla said in a statement.

The drilling of the new well is part of a plan worth $1.9 billion to explore for gas in the Mediterranean and the Delta.

Egypt hopes BRICS entry will lure foreign cash

25 August 2023; MEMO: Egypt hopes its imminent inclusion in the BRICS bloc of developing nations will help ease its shortage of foreign currency and attract new investment, but analysts say it may take time before any benefits appear, Reuters reports.

The bloc, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, on Thursday invited Egypt and five other countries to join, and Egypt immediately welcomed the offer.

Two tankers collided in Egypt’s Suez Canal, briefly disrupting traffic in the vital waterway

CAIRO (AP) — Two tankers carrying oil products and liquefied natural gas collided in a single-lane stretch of the Suez Canal, briefly disrupting traffic through the global waterway before it was cleared, Egyptian authorities said Wednesday.

Egypt calls for calm in Cyprus after attacks on UN peacekeepers

CAIRO, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Egypt on Sunday called for calm in Cyprus after the recent attacks on United Nations peacekeepers in the east Mediterranean island.

In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry called for efforts to stop measures that would fuel tensions between the two parts of Cyprus, underlining the importance of respecting the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

Egyptian political detainee dies in prison; Rights group

18 August 2023; MEMO: Egyptian political prisoner, Mahmoud Abdel-Raheem, has died in the Gamasa Prison in Damietta governorate, two months after both his daughter and wife were killed in a car accident while on their way to visit him in detention, a rights watchdog has said.

The Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR) said Abdel-Raheem, a former employee at the Ministry of Religious Endowments, was sentenced to three years in prison.

Egypt: Clashes between rival militias in Libya leave 27 people dead, authorities say

CAIRO (AP) — Clashes between rival militias in Libya’s capital killed at least 27 people and left residents trapped in their homes Tuesday, unable to escape the violence, medical authorities said.

The fighting appears to be the most intense to shake Tripoli this year. In addition to the 27 deaths, over 100 people were injured in the fighting, Libya’s Emergency Medicine and Support Center, a medical body that is deployed during humanitarian disasters and wars, said early Wednesday.

Egypt: expectation of ‘terrifying’ debt within 5 years

15 August 2023; MEMO: Data from an international statistics website shows a “terrifying” expectation of the size of Egypt’s national debt over the next five years. Statista has predicted that the debt will be $510.32 billion in 2028, compared with $132.86bn in 2018, an increase of more than 284 per cent over the ten-year period.

Leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Palestine urge for ending Israeli occupation, peace talks revival

CAIRO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine stressed on Monday the necessity of ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands in order to revive peace and the Palestinian cause, according to a statement issued by the Egyptian Presidency.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a tripartite conference in Egypt's coastal city of New Alamein, where the three leaders touched on the latest developments in the Palestinian cause.

Egypt: Sudan’s top army general accuses paramilitary of war crimes in televised speech

CAIRO (AP) — In a rare televised speech Monday, the head of Sudan’s military accused the rival paramilitary force of committing war crimes as all-out civil war threatens to engulf the northeast African country.

Sudan was plunged into chaos in April when months of simmering tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere.

UN says 5 staff members kidnapped in Yemen 18 months ago walk free

CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations said Friday that five staff members who were kidnapped in Yemen 18 months ago have walked free.

In a brief statement, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said all “available information suggests that all five colleagues are in good health.”

Haq named the freed men as Akm Sufiul Anam; Mazen Bawazir; Bakeel al-Mahdi; Mohammed al-Mulaiki; and Khaled Mokhtar Sheikh. All worked for the U.N. Department of Security and Safety, he said.

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