Abdel Fattah el-Sisi facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids His Excellency Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
عبد الفتاح السیسي
Official portrait, 2017

6th President of Egypt
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 June 2014
Prime Minister	Ibrahim Mahlab Sherif Ismail Mostafa Madbouly
Preceded by	Mohamed Morsi Adly Mansour (interim)
Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt
In office 16 July 2013 – 26 March 2014
Prime Minister	Hazem al-Beblawi Ibrahim Mahlab
17th Chairperson of the African Union
In office 10 February 2019 – 10 February 2020
Preceded by	Paul Kagame
Succeeded by	Cyril Ramaphosa
Minister of Defence
In office 12 August 2012 – 26 March 2014
Prime Minister	Hesham Qandil Hazem al-Beblawi Ibrahim Mahlab
Preceded by	Mohamed Hussein Tantawi
Succeeded by	Sedki Sobhy
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
In office 12 August 2012 – 26 March 2014
Preceded by	Mohamed Hussein Tantawi
Succeeded by	Sedki Sobhy
Director of Military Intelligence
In office 3 January 2010 – 12 August 2012
Preceded by	Murad Muwafi
Succeeded by	Mahmoud Hegazy

Personal details
Born	Abd el-Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi (1954-11-19) 19 November 1954 (age 70) Cairo, Egypt
Political party	Independent
Spouse	Entissar Amer (m. 1977)
Children	4, including Mahmoud
Parents	Said Hussein Khalili al-Sisi Soad Mohamed
Alma mater	Egyptian Military Academy
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	Egyptian Army
Years of service	1977–2014
Rank	Field marshal
Unit	Infantry
Battles/wars	Gulf War Sinai insurgency Second Libyan Civil War Yemeni Civil War

Abd el-Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi (Arabic: عَبْد اَلْفَتَّاح سَعِید حُسَيْن خَلِیل اَلْسِیسِي, pronounced [ʕæbdel.fætˈtæːħ sæˈʕiːd ħeˈseːn xæˈliːl ɪsˈsiːsi]; born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian military in 2014, Sisi served as Egypt's deputy prime minister from 2013 to 2014, minister of defense from 2012 to 2013, and director of military intelligence from 2010 to 2012. He was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal in January 2014.

Early life and military education
Military career (1977–2014)
Presidency (2014–present)
Recognition
- Military
- Civil
See also

Early life and military education

Sisi was born in Old Cairo on 19 November 1954 to Said Hussein Khalili al-Sisi and Soad Mohamed, both from Monufia Governorate. He grew up in Gamaleya, near al-Azhar Mosque, in a quarter where Muslims, Jews and Christians resided and in which he later recalled how, during his childhood, he had heard church bells and watched Jews flock to synagogue unhindered.

He later enrolled in the Egyptian Military Academy, and upon graduating he held various command positions in the Egyptian Armed Forces and served as Egypt's military attaché in Riyadh. In 1987, he attended the Egyptian Command and Staff College. In 1992, he continued his military career by enrolling in the British Command and Staff College, and, in 2006, enrolled in the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Sisi was the youngest member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, serving as the director of military intelligence and reconnaissance department. He was later chosen to replace Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and serve as the commander-in-chief and Minister of Defense and Military Production on 12 August 2012.

Sisi's family origins were in the Monufia Governorate. He is the second eldest of eight siblings. His father, a conservative but not radical Muslim, who later had six additional children with a second wife, owned an antiques shop for tourists in the historic bazaar of Khan el-Khalili.

Sisi and his siblings studied at the nearby library at al-Azhar University. Unlike his brothers – one of whom is a senior judge, another a civil servant – el-Sisi went to a local army-run secondary school, where he developed a relationship with his maternal cousin, Entissar Amer. They were married upon Sisi's graduation from the Egyptian Military Academy in 1977. He attended the following courses:

General Command and Staff Course, Egyptian Command and Staff College, 1987;
General Command and Staff Course, Joint Command and Staff College, United Kingdom, 1992;
War Course, Fellowship of the Higher War College, Nasser Military Academy, Egypt, 2003;
War Course, United States Army War College, United States, 2006;
Egyptian Armed Forces military attaché in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia;
Basic Infantry Course, United States

Military career (1977–2014)

Field Marshal Sisi as Minister of Defense, 2013

General al-Sisi (left) and then President Mohamed Morsi (right) listen to visiting U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (center) during a meeting with U.S. officials on 24 April 2013, just months before Sisi overthrew Morsi in a coup d'état.

Demonstrations against President Morsi, June 2013

El-Sisi received his commission as a military officer in 1977 serving in the mechanised infantry, specialising in anti-tank warfare and mortar warfare. He became Commander of the Northern Military Region-Alexandria in 2008 and then Director of Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance. El-Sisi was the youngest member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces of Egypt.

US-Egypt Bright Star exercise in 2009. Sisi was sitting on the left back seat.

After the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and election of Mohamed Morsi to the Egyptian presidency, Sisi was appointed Minister of Defense by Morsi on 12 August 2012, replacing the Hosni Mubarak-era Hussein Tantawi. As the minister of defense, and ultimately commander in chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, Sisi was involved in overthrowing then-president Morsi on 3 July 2013, in response to large-scale protests against Morsi's rule. Morsi was replaced by an interim president, Adly Mansour, who appointed a new cabinet. Demonstrations, sit-ins, and violent clashes between supporters of Morsi and security forces followed, culminating in the dispersal in August 2013 of pro-Morsi sit-ins which resulted in violent clashes that led to hundreds of deaths.

On 26 March 2014, in response to calls from supporters to run for the presidency, Field Marshal el-Sisi retired from his military career and announced that he would run as a candidate in the 2014 presidential election. The election, held between 26 and 28 May, featured one opponent, Hamdeen Sabahi, saw 47% participation by eligible voters, and resulted in Sisi winning in a landslide victory with 97% of the vote.

Presidency (2014–present)

Protesters outside 10 Downing Street opposed to the UK visit of President Sisi in November 2015

Sisi with U.S. President Joe Biden at the GCC+3 summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 16 July 2022

Sisi with Indian PM Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House in India, 25 January 2023

Secretary Kerry and Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry discuss Gaza ceasefire with el-Sisi in Cairo.

Sisi and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, who is a close ally of Turkey, 28 January 2023

Sisi, King Salman of Saudi Arabia and U.S. President Donald Trump at the 2017 Riyadh summit in Saudi Arabia

President Sisi with President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, August 2014

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis meets with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during a meeting held at the Pentagon in Washington.

Sisi and US President Joe Biden at the United States–Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, December 2022

President Sisi was sworn into office on 8 June 2014. The event was marked by an impromptu public holiday in Egypt in conjunction with festivals held nationwide. Tahrir Square was prepared to receive millions of Egyptians celebrating Sisi's win; police and soldiers shut down the square outlets with barbed wires and barricades, as well as electronic portals for detecting any explosives that could spoil the festivities. Sisi's oath of office was administered in the morning in Egypt's Supreme constitutional court in front of the deputy head of the constitutional court, Maher Sami, who described el-Sisi as a "rebel soldier" and a "revolutionary hero"; ex-president Adly Mansour; other constitutional court members; and a group of Egypt's top politicians. Sisi later moved to the Heliopolis Palace, where a 21-gun salute welcomed the new president, before the ex-president received Sisi near the palace's stairway. Sisi then presided over a reception for the foreign presidents, emirs, kings, and official delegations who had been invited. No representatives of Turkey, Tunisia or Qatar were invited, reportedly because of their governments' critical stances regarding then-recent events in Egypt; representatives of Israel were also not invited. In a ceremony at Heliopolis Palace, Sisi gave a speech to the attendees. He and the previous president, Adly Mansour, also signed a document officially transferring power to Sisi, which was the first time in Egyptian history that power had been transferred in this way. Sisi then went on to Koubbeh Palace, where the final ceremony was held. There, he gave the final speech of the day to 1,200 attendees representing a spectrum of the Egyptian people—from various walks of life and from each of the provinces of Egypt. He described the problems that he said Egypt was facing, and his plan for addressing them, and declared, “In its next phase, Egypt will witness a total rise on both internal and external fronts, to compensate for what we have missed and correct the mistakes of the past”. Sisi then issued his first presidential decree, conferring the Order of the Nile upon the previous president, Adly Mansour.

Economic reforms

El-Sisi listens as US Secretary of State Kerry addresses audience of several thousand attending the EEDC.

Sisi, who is reportedly facing a severe economic ordeal in Egypt, has decided to raise fuel prices by 78 percent as an introduction to cut the subsidies on basic food stuffs and energy, which use nearly a quarter of the state budget. The Egyptian government has traditonally provided these subsidies as a crucial aid to millions of people who live in poverty, fearing people's anger in five years time. Egypt had spent $96 billion on energy subsidies in a decade, which made gasoline in Egypt among the world's cheapest. Cutting the energy subsidies will save EGP51 billion. The government hopes the decision will benefit services such as health and education. Sisi also raised taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, applying a flat tax on local and imported cigarettes to between 25 and 40 cents per pack, as well as new property taxes, and plans to introduce a new scheme for value-added taxes. Chicken prices would reportedly rise by 25 percent days after the decision because of added transportation costs. Mini-bus and taxi fares were raised by about 13 percent. Slashing subsidies was recommended by international financial institutions, but no prior Egyptian leader had managed to broach the issue, fearing unrest in a country where nearly 30 percent of the population lives in poverty and rely on government aid. President Sisi defended the decision to raise fuel prices, saying it was "bitter medicine" that should have been taken before and was "50 years late" but was not taken, as governments feared a backlash like the Bread Riots of 1977. Sisi, who had previously accepted only half of his own pay, called on Egyptians to make sacrifices, vowing to repair an economy growing at the slowest pace in two decades. Sisi warned Egyptians of more pain over the next two years from economic problems that he said had accumulated over the last four decades and needed to be fixed. Egypt also paid more than $6 billion it owed to foreign oil companies within two months. By March 2015 after 8 months of Sisi's rule, Egypt's external debt fell to $39.9 billion, a drop of 13.5 percent.

As a result of the economic reforms, Moody's raised Egypt's credit ratings outlook to stable from negative and Fitch Ratings upgraded Egypt's credit rating one step to “B” from “B−”. Standard & Poor's rated Egypt B-minus with a stable outlook and upgraded Egypt's credit rating in November 2013. On 7 April 2015, Moody's upgraded Egypt's outlook from Caa1 to B3 with stable outlook expecting real GDP growth in Egypt to recover to 4.5% year-on-year for the fiscal year 2015, which ends in June, and then to rise to around 5%–6% over the coming four years compared to 2.5% in 2014.

In May 2015, Egypt chose the banks to handle its return to the international bond market after a gap of five years marking a return of economic and political stability in the country after the revolution of 2011. However, in early 2016 the Egyptian pound suffered from devaluation: in February when the pound was allowed to float briefly, its value reduced rapidly from £E7.83 per US dollar to £E8.95 per dollar, resulting in increased prices for everyday goods.

Energy policy

Considered its worst in decades, Egypt's energy crisis that helped inflame the protests against former president Mohamed Morsi continued to grow in Sisi's first months in office, challenging the new government. Due to shortage in energy production, growing consumption, terrorist attacks on Egypt's energy infrastructure, debts to foreign oil companies and the absence of the needed periodic maintenance of the power plants, the energy blackout rates in Egypt rose to unprecedented levels, with some parts of the country facing around six power cuts a day for up to two hours each. In August 2014, daily electricity consumption hit a record high of 27.7 gigawatts, 20% more power than stations could provide. The next month Egypt suffered a massive power outage that halted parts of the Cairo Metro, took television stations off the air, and ground much of the country to a halt for several hours because of the sudden loss of 50 percent of the country's power generation. Sisi, on his part, said that the idler would be held accountable and promised to partially solve the economic crisis by August 2015, and that, beginning with December that year, the crisis will be dealt with entirely. Both long-term and short-term plans were introduced. In the short-term, Egypt signed a contract with General Electric (GE) to provide the country with 2.6 gigawatts by the summer of 2015. The first phase entered service in June and the final phase was expected to be completed by the end of August, making it one of the fastest energy transferring operations in the world according to GE. In June, Sisi's administration stated that for the first time in years, Egypt achieved a surplus in power generating capacity estimated at 2.9 gigawatts. In the long-term, Egypt paid more than $6 billion it owed to foreign oil companies between January and March. Energy contracts were placed as a top priority in the Egypt Economic Development Conference in March 2015, resulting in a $9 billion contract with Siemens to supply gas and wind power plants to boost the country's electricity generation by 50 percent, in addition to an energy deal worth $12 billion (£E91.5 billion) with BP to provide the country with an extra quarter of local energy production. Sisi also stated that Egypt is not just solving its energy crisis, but rather seeking to become a “global hub for energy trading”. In Nicosia on 21 November 2017 he met President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and the Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras. They encouraged and welcomed private sector initiatives of energy infrastructure projects, important for energy security of all three countries such as the EuroAfrica Interconnector, interconnector between Greek, Cypriot, and Egypt power grids via submarine power cable of length around 1,619-kilometre (1,006 mi).

National projects

President Sisi speaking at the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London, 2020

In August 2014, President Sisi initiated a new Suez Canal, a parallel channel running about one-third the length of the existing waterway, which would double capacity of the existing canal from 49 to 97 ships a day. The new canal is expected to increase the Suez Canal's revenues by 259% from current annual revenues of $5 billion. The project cost around 60 billion Egyptian-pounds ($8.4 billion) and was fast-tracked over a year. Sisi insisted funding come from Egyptian sources only. The new canal was inaugurated on schedule on 6 August 2015.

Sisi also introduced the Suez Canal Area Development Project which would involve development of five new seaports in the three provinces surrounding the canal, a new industrial zone west of the Gulf of Suez, economic zones around the waterway, seven new tunnels between Sinai and the Egyptian home land, building a new Ismailia city, huge fish farms, and a technology valley within Ismailia.

Sisi also started the National Roads Project, which involves building a road network of more than 4,400 kilometres and uses 104 acres of land, promising that there are many development and reconstruction campaigns for Egypt to reduce the unemployment rate and increase the poor's income.

An ambitious plan to build a new city near Cairo to serve as the country's new capital was announced during the Egypt Economic Development Conference. Located east of Cairo approximately midway between Cairo and Suez, this proposed new capital of Egypt is yet to be formally named and is intended to relieve population pressures from the greater Cairo area.

In 2016, President Sisi set a national goal of eliminating all unsafe slums in two years. The first stage of the project was inaugurated on 30 May 2016 containing 11,000 housing units built at a cost of £E1.56 billion (US$177.8 Million). Funding was provided by the “Long Live Egypt” economic development fund in collaboration with civilian charitable organizations. The ultimate goal is the construction of 850,000 housing units with additional stages in processes funded in the same manner.

An agricultural plan, under the name “New Delta Project”, aims to expand the Egyptian Delta and construct housing and farmlands westwards to increase Egypt's food sufficiency and general agricultural production.