Egypt

20 June 2020; MEMO: Egypt on Friday called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene to restart talks on the $4 billion hydroelectric dam being built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile near the border with Sudan.

WASHINGTON, June 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Bank said it would provide $400 million to support universal health coverage in Egypt as the country struggles with rising numbers of new Coronavirus cases.

The funding will help Egypt increase the reach of its universal health insurance system in six governorates and offer temporary financial protection to those hit by high out-of-pocket health expenditures linked to the coronavirus outbreak, the bank said in a statement.

12 June 2020; MEMO: Egyptian TikTok star Haneen Hossam has been re-arrested and referred to the Criminal Court following her release on bail earlier this week.

CAIRO, June 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Egypt will allow scheduled international flights and foreign tourists to resorts that have been least affected by the coronavirus starting from July 1, the cabinet said.

Egypt suspended regular international flights in March and shut down restaurants, hotels, and cafes.

Airports remain closed to all but domestic and repatriation flights, but hotels were last month allowed to reopen for domestic tourists at reduced capacity if they met strict health protocols.

11 June 2020; MEMO: Libya’s renegade General, Khalifa Haftar, will remain in the Egyptian capital Cairo for at least a few weeks until he finds a place to retire, Egyptian media reported.

CAIRO (AP) — In the darkness, the bodies of suspected victims of coronavirus are carried in silence, one after the other, to be buried in several cemeteries across northern Yemen. Flashlights flicker as mourners make their way through the shadows.

08 June 2020; MEMO: New suspected coronavirus infections have been detected in Al-Qanater men’s prison, according to the human rights organisation We Record.

The infections are in four detention cells in which most of the prisoners are detained on criminal charges, the organisation reported.

The symptoms began to appear on 23 May and have spread because of the prison administration’s failure to act quickly and put in place preventative measures.

CAIRO (AP) — After his arrest in 2013 for documenting the deadliest crackdown on protesters in Egypt’s modern history, Mohamed Soltan landed in a notorious prison where he says he was brutally tortured for 21 months.

He never thought he’d get a chance to fight back, let alone make it out alive.

But on Monday, Soltan, a 32-year-old U.S. citizen now living in Virginia, used a federal statute to accuse former Egyptian prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi of crimes against humanity.

01 June 2020; MEMO: Suspected coronavirus cases have been detected in two out of four blocks of Egypt’s notorious Tora Prison, human rights organisation We Record reports.

The cases cannot be confirmed to be the virus due to the regime’s refusal to conduct tests.

We Record has said they believe the infection came from Ministry of Interior employee Sayed Hijazi who died from the virus on 29 May.

Hijazi regularly came into contact with prisoners, officers and the police.

CAIRO, June 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Egypt’s military said it killed 19 suspected militants in targeted ground and air operations as part of its battle to quell a long-running insurgency in north Sinai.

In a video statement replete with a dramatic score released on its social media, the army said troops killed three “extremely dangerous” militants as well as 16 others in precision airstrikes on their “terrorist hideouts”.

Troops found troves of automatic rifles, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades in posession of the militants, the army added.