Marsad Egypt Egyptian Security Sector Observatory

The shifting relationships between armies and civil society are revealing new balances within defense structures.

Three months after Egypt reported its first novel coronavirus case, medical experts warn the strained healthcare system of the Arab world’s most populous nation is nearing a “critical threshold”.

In its daily report, Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population has announced that 745 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded today, bringing the total number of infections since the beginning of the outbreak in the country to 14,229 cases.

UNESCO launched a global campaign this year called “Journalism without fear or favor” to celebrate journalists on World Press Freedom Day on May 3. But in Egypt, the celebration had a different taste with more restrictions inflicted on journalists.

An independent human rights organisation based in Geneva said on Monday that two persons who were suspected of having been infected by the coronavirus have died in detention in Egypt, bringing the number of deaths in detention in the country since June 2013 to 1,007.

Tensions dramatically escalated between Ethiopia and Egypt on Monday and Tuesday as Addis Ababa announced it would not postpone the filling of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered the Egyptian armed forces to be on the “highest state of alert”.