Egypt is a transcontinental country located in the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia, making it the only country in the world to span two continents. It is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and Israel and Gaza Strip to the east. Egypt has a population of over 100 million people, making it one of the most populous countries in Africa. The capital city is Cairo, which is also its largest city. Egypt’s landscape consists mostly of desert areas with some oases scattered throughout. The Nile River runs through Egypt, providing much needed water resources for agriculture and other activities. Egypt is known for its ancient monuments such as the Giza Pyramid complex and its Great Sphinx, as well as its rich cultural heritage which includes many Coptic Christian churches and Islamic mosques. It is also home to some of the oldest universities in history and many renowned archaeological sites from various time periods. See countries that begin with E.
Yearbook 2004
Egypt. At least 32 people were killed on October 7 in a bombing raid on Hotel Hilton in the resort of Taba at the border with Israel. Two more people were killed in two similar attacks on the same day in the tourist resort Nuwayba 6 km south of Taba. Most of the victims were Israeli tourists Taba is the gateway to the Sinai Peninsula’s Red Sea beaches, where many Israelis have been touring in recent years. Five Egyptians were arrested at the end of October, accused of involvement in the attacks. Egyptian authorities also announce that the two chiefs, a Palestinian and an Egyptian, were among the dead in Taba. It was unclear which group they belonged to. The militant Egyptian group al-Jama’at al-Islamiyya renounced all involvement, as did the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Israeli government directed suspicions against the militant Islamist network al-Qaeda, but Egyptian authorities, keen to protect the tourism industry, denied that the arrested had links to al-Qaeda. The attack was the first major terrorist act in Egypt since militant Islamists killed 58 tourists in Luxor in 1997.
The total population in Egypt is 102,334,415 people in 2020. The government under Prime Minister Atif Ubayd resigned on July 9. The new government, under former Minister of Communications Ahmad Nazif, was judged to be designed to reform the country’s economy, boost foreign investment and restore confidence in its currency. Three of the new ministers were closely associated with President Hosni Mubarak’s son Jamal Mubarak, who is considered reform-friendly and has been mentioned as a possible future successor to the father.
In the May and June elections to the House of Parliament, which has only advisory power, the ruling National Democratic Party took 70 of the 88 seats that were at stake. A further number of members were appointed by Mubarak. After the election and appointments, 257 of Parliament’s 264 members were national democrats. See baglib.com for Egypt sights, UNESCO, climate, and geography.
Security forces arrested 54 members of the formally banned Muslim Brotherhood on May 16. It was the biggest blow to the organization in ten years.
The funeral ceremony for Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat was held on November 12 in Cairo, Arafat’s birthplace. Some 50 heads of state and government, primarily from the Middle East and Africa, participated. Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson was the only current head of government from an EU country. Arafat was buried on the West Bank.
All 148 people on board were killed when an Egyptian passenger plane of the Boeing 737 type crashed shortly after takeoff from the tourist resort of Sharm ash-Shaykh on January 3. The vast majority of those killed were French tourists. The authorities immediately determined that the accident had been caused by a technical error.
In January al-Sisi was also promoted to field marshal and in May 14 was elected president with 96.9% of the votes cast – even more than the previous dictator Hosni Mubarak had been elected ten years earlier. al-Sisi appointed Ibrahim Mahlab as its prime minister. The EU and the US wished the dictator congratulations on the election. The Obama administration stated that it “looked forward to working with Abdelfattah al-Sisi, the winner of the Egyptian presidential election, to strengthen our strategic partnership and the many common interests the United States and Egypt have”. The superpower then resumed its massive military assistance to the country. The Arab Spring in Egypt was suffocated in blood and conditions rolled back to the period under the Mubarak dictatorship.
In January 2014, Islamic militant group Ansar Beyt al-Maqdis (ABM) fired an Egyptian military helicopter over Sinai with a ground-to-air rocket. The West’s defeat of the Gaddafi regime in Libya in 2011 had sent advanced weapons such as the ground-to-air rocket across North Africa, and by now they had reached Sinai. That same month, security forces killed 64 civilians trying to mark the 3-year anniversary of the start of the rebellion against the Mubarak dictatorship.
Egypt was in deep economic crisis as a result of several years of turmoil and military coup that had brought the tourism sector to a complete halt. One of al-Sisi’s first actions was therefore to shave off the most important part of the Egyptian state budget – subsidies for energy and food. Energy prices therefore increased 78% and more food products increased 25%. These were actions that affected a wide range, but especially the poor population. The political chaos in the country and its deep economic crisis turned upside down on the strength of the Arab world. From being the leading country in the Arab League, Egypt became a tailgate to Saudi Arabia. In the first year after toppling Morsi, Egypt received $ 20 billion US $ in financial aid from Saudi Arabia and countries in the Arabian Gulf. Saudi Arabia also paid off. When the country launched a war on Yemen in March 2015, Egypt brought in an Arab coalition to legitimize the Saudi war.