South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Thursday that the BRICS club of emerging nations will admit six new members, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran, at the start of next year.

Egyptian armed forces and pro-government militias fighting Islamic State (IS) in North Sinai have recruited children in violation of international law, a rights group has reported.

“The Arab Spring is dead,” analysts and commentators have proclaimed repeatedly since the period immediately following the successful overthrow of long-term dictators in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011.

Egypt and Ethiopia agreed Thursday to finalise a deal over Ethiopia’s controversial mega-dam on the Blue Nile within four months, a breakthrough after years of tensions between the two countries.

Egyptian authorities have arbitrarily detained women and girls related to suspected members of the Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in North Sinai, some for months or years, Human Rights Watch and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights said today.

Egypt was planning to manufacture rockets for Russia but then suspended that effort and decided to supply ammunition to Ukraine after talks with United States officials, The Washington Post has reported, citing leaked intelligence documents.

President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi in February planned to produce 40,000 rockets for Russia and instructed officials to keep production and shipment secret ‘to avoid problems with the West’

Human rights groups said on Monday that collective punishment is taking place at Egypt’s Badr prison complex, as they warned of “numerous suicide attempts and hunger strikes among detainees”.

A special Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced four veteran human rights activists to prison terms up to 15 years for “terrorism”, several rights groups said.

The Egyptian authorities should increase transparency by making essential figures about the country’s detainee population public, nine organizations said today. The figure should include how many people have been kept in custody in recent years under the nationwide crackdown on dissent.