(Photo from Ministry of Interior)
Minister of Interior Magdy Abdel Ghaffar removed Thursday Major General Osama Bedeir from his position as the Cairo Security Director and appointed Major General Khaled Abdel A’al in his place.
Following the appointment of Abdel Ghaffar, he swiftly changed the majority of the ministry’s leadership, one day after assuming the post. The shuffle brought 12 new assistants to the minister in the economic security, social security, general security, national security, and the prisons authority divisions, among others.
Former head of the Homeland Security agency Abdel Ghaffar was appointed early March after President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi removed the former minister Mohamed Ibrahim from office. This came following two major incidents; the death of over 20 football fans outside the Air Defence Stadium in February and the killing of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party’s Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh in January.
Ibrahim held office under two different regimes, three different presidents and three prime ministers, despite several calls for his dismissal since the Muslim Brotherhood era, and deteriorating security conditions.
Cairo has seen a marked increase in urban attacks in recent months, which saw a peak in last month’s assassination of prosecutor general Hisham Barakat. His death on 29 June, marking the first successful targeting of a top state official since the 1990s, was widely seen as a harbinger of more violence in the capital.
It was followed by various attacks, including the bombing of the Italian Consulate in downtown Cairo last Saturday.
