Egypt's El Sisi visits Bedouin city of Salloum to launch revamp

Sparsely populated settlement on Libyan border soon to have 'civilised market' and minibus terminal

President El Sisi on a visit to a Bedouin settlement in the west of Egypt on Wednesday

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi visited the coastal city of Salloum on Wednesday to launch a development plan in one of the country’s least developed regions.

Mr El Sisi met Bedouin residents in the city in Matruh province before reassuring an increasingly impoverished population that the country would “make it through this economic challenge”.

Under the plans, a desalination plant in the city will increase capacity to provide more water to residents, most of whom are low-income Bedouin, a Matruh governor statement said.

A minibus terminal will be built in the city, which lies on Egypt’s border with Libya, to boost transport links.

A large market will also be set up in Salloum, which though sparsely populated is one of the main trading centres for the Bedouin tribes who inhabit Egypt’s Western Desert.

A “civilised market” will be set up to replace the city’s informal ones, the Housing Ministry said.

The main hospital will also be developed under the plan and Salloum's road network will be upgraded.

During live TV coverage of the visit, Mr El Sisi asked leaders of Bedouin tribes that they allow the state to organise them “according to your own customs".

Egypt’s Bedouin are culturally distinct from the rest of the country and, due to their semi-nomadic existence, do not interact much with settled communities.

Issuing national ID cards to the Bedouin has been an agenda of many presidential campaigns, the latest of which took place in April. Such campaigns are widely met with refusal from the Bedouin, many of whom are adamant to preserve their way of life.

Bedouin gathered outside a police station last month in Marsa Matruh, the largest in Matruh, after one of their own was shot dead by a police officer after he ran through a security checkpoint.

A police officer was killed in subsequent riots.

The officer who shot the man and five rioters were referred to a criminal court by the country’s prosecutor-general.

Egypt’s Mediterranean coast has been undergoing a wave of property development, an important part of the construction projects under Mr El Sisi.

“We want to install all the cities along the north coast, whether it is Alamein or Ras Al Hikma, with schools and hospitals,” the President told the Bedouin congregation on Wednesday.

Mr El Sisi and his family spent time in New Alamein, an upmarket development on Egypt’s north coast, this month, where he received several visitors including President Sheikh Mohamed and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.