Egypt’s army seems to want to make pasta as well as war (original) (raw)
Even as it struggled to assert control on Sinai, it seized large parts of the economy
A working lunchImage: AFP
THE WAR was not going well. The enemy had made three major advances in barely a year. The population was demoralised. Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi needed to show leadership. His motorcade zipped across a desolate landscape until it reached an army checkpoint, where Egypt’s president sought to rally the troops. “Don’t think this crisis will remain,” he told a clutch of camouflage-clad conscripts. “A day will come, and this crisis will become history.”
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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Of militants and money-changers”
From the April 15th 2023 edition
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