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Egypt Extends Nationwide State of Emergency for 3 Months

Woman wearing mask in Egyptian market (File photo: Reuters)
Woman wearing mask in Egyptian market (File photo: Reuters)
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Egypt Extends Nationwide State of Emergency for 3 Months

Woman wearing mask in Egyptian market (File photo: Reuters)
Woman wearing mask in Egyptian market (File photo: Reuters)

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi extended on Tuesday the nationwide state of emergency for another three months, citing “dangerous” health and security conditions in the country.

"Given the serious health and security situation ... the state of emergency has been declared across the country for three months starting Tuesday, April 28," said a presidential decree.

Egypt has been under a state of emergency since April 2017 when twin church bombings in Alexandria claimed by ISIS affiliates killed dozens of people.

The Health Ministry confirmed 20 more fatalities from COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the national death toll to 337. The number of cases stands at 4,782, along with 1,236 recoveries.

Last week, the government announced that the curfew hours will be shortened during Ramadan month and will start at nine p.m. instead of eight p.m., till six a.m. It also announced a number of coronavirus precautionary measures.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli made an inspection tour to a number of development projects in Cairo, hinting that Egypt must “adapt” to living with coronavirus as part of precautionary measures.

Madbouli was accompanied by ministers of antiquities and tourism, local development and housing, and Cairo governor, among others.

The officials visited the construction sites of projects within the plans for urban expansion, and they inspected buildings that were illegally built during the curfew implemented to confront the coronavirus.

Speaking on the sideline of the tour, Madbouli said that economic development must continue, adding that a country like Egypt must continue to operate while taking precautionary measures to adapt to the emerging coronavirus.

He stressed that authorities will not allow random construction in this way, especially with highly-populated cities like Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria.

Madbouli also toured and inspected development project in Tahrir Square, as well as projects of Ain el-Sira groundwater lake and surrounding areas in Old Cairo.

He directed officials to increase works and swiftly complete the plans with the adoption of all preventive measures to counter the outbreak of the coronavirus.

In related news, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities followed up the preparations for the inauguration ceremony of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in 2021.

The supervising committee held its meeting to address issues of the inauguration and measures set to be taken to organize the parade.

Earlier this month, the President postponed the launch of the Museum due to the coronavirus outbreak.

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Arab World

‘Shockingly High’ Number of Gaza Children Still Acutely Malnourished After Truce, UN Says 

Displaced Palestinian students attend class at a tent school in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 December 2025. (EPA)
Displaced Palestinian students attend class at a tent school in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 December 2025. (EPA)
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‘Shockingly High’ Number of Gaza Children Still Acutely Malnourished After Truce, UN Says 

Displaced Palestinian students attend class at a tent school in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 December 2025. (EPA)
Displaced Palestinian students attend class at a tent school in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 09 December 2025. (EPA)

Thousands of children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in Gaza since an October ceasefire that was supposed to enable a major increase in humanitarian aid, the UN children's agency said on Tuesday.

UNICEF, the biggest provider of malnutrition treatment in Gaza, said that 9,300 children were treated for severe acute malnutrition in October, when the first phase of an agreement to end the two-year Israel-Hamas war came into effect.

While this is down from a peak of over 14,000 in August, the number is still significantly higher than during a brief February-March ceasefire and indicates that aid flows remain insufficient, UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram told a Geneva press briefing by video link from Gaza.

"It's still a shockingly high number," she said. "The number of children admitted is five times higher than in February, so we need to see the numbers come down further."

Ingram described meeting underweight babies weighing less than 1 kilogram born in hospitals "their tiny chests heaving with the effort of staying alive."

UNICEF is able to import considerably more aid into the enclave than it was before the October 10 agreement, but obstacles remain, she said, citing delays and denials of cargoes at crossings, route closures and ongoing security challenges.

"We have seen some improvement, but we continue to call for all of the available crossings into the Gaza Strip to be open," she added.

There are not enough commercial supplies entering Gaza, she added, saying that meat was still prohibitively expensive at around $20 a kilogram.

"Most families can't access this, and that's why we're still seeing high rates of malnutrition," she said.

In August, a UN-backed hunger monitor determined that famine conditions were affecting about half a million people - or a quarter of Gaza's population.

Children were severely affected by hunger as the war progressed, with experts warning that the effects could cause lasting damage.

Arab World

Sudan’s RSF Advances Could Trigger New Refugee Exodus, UNHCR Chief Warns 

Women displaced from el-Fasher stand in line to receive food aid at the newly established El-Afadh camp in al-Dabba, in Sudan's Northern State, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP)
Women displaced from el-Fasher stand in line to receive food aid at the newly established El-Afadh camp in al-Dabba, in Sudan's Northern State, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP)
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Sudan’s RSF Advances Could Trigger New Refugee Exodus, UNHCR Chief Warns 

Women displaced from el-Fasher stand in line to receive food aid at the newly established El-Afadh camp in al-Dabba, in Sudan's Northern State, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP)
Women displaced from el-Fasher stand in line to receive food aid at the newly established El-Afadh camp in al-Dabba, in Sudan's Northern State, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP)

Advances by paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan could trigger another exodus across the country's borders, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, told Reuters.

The RSF took over Darfur's city of el-Fasher in late October in one of its biggest gains of the 2-1/2-year war with Sudan's army. This month, advances have continued eastward into the Kordofan region and they seized the country's biggest oil field.

Most of the estimated 40,000 people that the United Nations says have been displaced by the latest violence in Kordofan - a region comprised of three states in central and southern Sudan - have sought refuge within the country, Grandi said, but that could change if violence spreads to a large city like El Obeid.

"If that were to be - not necessarily taken - but engulfed by the war, I am pretty sure we would see more exodus," said Grandi in an interview from Port Sudan late on Monday.

"We have to remain...very alert in neighboring countries in case this happens," he said.

MILLIONS HOMELESS

Already, the war has uprooted nearly 12 million people, including 4.3 million who have fled across borders to Chad, South Sudan and elsewhere, in the world's biggest displacement crisis. However, some have returned to the capital Khartoum, which is now back in Sudanese army control.

Humanitarian workers lack resources to help those fleeing, many of whom have been raped, robbed or bereaved by the violence, said Grandi, who met with survivors who fled mass killings in el-Fasher.

"We are barely responding," said Grandi, referring to a Sudan response plan, which is just a third funded largely due to Western donor cuts. UNHCR lacks resources to relocate Sudanese refugees from an unstable area along Chad's border, he said.

FAMILIES TORN APART BY CONFLICT

Most of those who trekked hundreds of kilometers from el-Fasher and Kordofan to Sudan’s al-Dabba camp on the banks of the Nile north of Khartoum, which Grandi visited last week, are women and children. Their husbands and sons were killed or conscripted along the way.

Some mothers said they disguised their sons as girls to protect them from being abducted by fighters, Grandi said.

"Even fleeing is difficult because people are continuously stopped by the militias," he said.

Grandi began his UNHCR career in Khartoum in the 1980s, when Sudan sheltered refugees from other African wars. He is on his last trip as UNHCR chief before his term ends this month. A successor has yet to be named from over a dozen candidates.

Arab World

International Court Sentences Sudanese Militia Leader to 20 Years in Prison for Darfur Atrocities

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, a leader of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, a leader of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)
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International Court Sentences Sudanese Militia Leader to 20 Years in Prison for Darfur Atrocities

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, a leader of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, a leader of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool)

Judges at the International Criminal Court sentenced a leader of the feared Sudanese Janjaweed militia to 20 years imprisonment Tuesday for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the catastrophic conflict in Darfur more than 20 years ago.

At a hearing last month, prosecutors sought a life sentence for Ali Muhammad Ali Abd–Al-Rahman who was convicted in October of 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity that included ordering mass executions and bludgeoning two prisoners to death with an ax in 2003-2004, The Associated Press said.

“He committed these crimes knowingly, wilfully, and with, the evidence shows, enthusiasm and vigor,” prosecutor Julian Nicholls told judges at the sentencing hearing in November.

Abd-Al-Rahman, 76, stood and listened, but showed no reaction as Presiding Judge Joanna Korner passed the sentence.