Egypt: Government Determines 6 Regions Most in Need of Development

A general view shows the Egyptian parliament (File photo: Reuters)
A general view shows the Egyptian parliament (File photo: Reuters)
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Egypt: Government Determines 6 Regions Most in Need of Development

A general view shows the Egyptian parliament (File photo: Reuters)
A general view shows the Egyptian parliament (File photo: Reuters)

The Egyptian government decided Sunday to include six regions among governorates “most in need of development”, according to a law aimed at providing incentives to investors and enhancing job opportunities in those geographical areas.

The areas included under the category “most in need” are governorates to the south of Giza, the Suez Canal Region, east of the Canal area, and border governorates, including the Red Sea governorate, and the Upper Egypt governorates.

The latest official census on the poverty rate in Egypt showed that 32.5 percent of citizens are below the national poverty line.

Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, ordered that the areas “most in need” will receive facilities in certain economic activities, including intensive labor projects, medium and small projects, and projects that depend on or produce renewable energy, as well as others.

Through its action plan, the government aims to reduce unemployment rates.

Earlier, Minister of Planning Hala al-Saeed said that unemployment indicators for Q4 of 2019 showed lower rates to reach 8 percent, compared to 8.9 percent in Q4 of the previous year.

In the same context, the Minister of Local Development, Mahmoud Shaarawi, inaugurated a number of development projects in Sohag governorate, south of Egypt, as part of the presidential initiative to develop villages most in need.

The Egyptian government plans to develop 478 villages at an estimated cost of about EGP10 billion by 2022, by implementing a “decent life” initiative that include projects to improve transportation services, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, lighting, education, and health.

The initiative also aims to provide job opportunities with soft loans to promote economic situations.



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.