Egypt's Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim in North Sinai with police and military forces on Saturday 14 Feb. (Photo: Courtesy of Military Spokesperson Facebook page)
Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab on Saturday visited North Sinai governorate, where the army and police are waging a war against a decade-long jihadist insurgency.
Mahlab, accompanied by the ministers of defence and interior, visited army and police personnel at the Central Security Forces camp.
During the visit, Defence Minister Sedky Sobhi said the security strategy in the governorate had been revised, in light of the new unified military command ordered by the president.
Earlier in February, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered the creation of a new command that will guide the counter-terrorism activities of the Second and Third armies in the Sinai Peninsula.
The move came in the wake of a deadly terrorist attack on 30 January that left at least 30 dead, including civilians and army personnel.
General Osama Askar, who heads the new command, took part in the visit.
Mahlab also praised the “patriotic role of Sinai’s people and Bedouins and their support for the army and police.”
He asserted that the current government is adamant on securing economic development for Sinai’s people.
An 11-hour overnight curfew was imposed in some parts of North Sinai on 25 October, following another deadly attack that left 31 army personnel dead.
The curfew was initially set for three months only but was later renewed for another three months.
A buffer zone, one kilometer wide and 14 kilometres long, has been created in two stages along the border with Gaza.
In the first stage, at least 802 houses, accommodating 1,156 families have been evacuated. Compensation for the first phase will reach as much as LE500 million ($67 million).
The jihadist insurgency in the peninsula has spiked in the last year and half as hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed, while the army says it has killed and arrested hundreds of jihadists.
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