Minister of Interior Magdy Abdel Ghaffar approved the ministry’s annual reshuffle on Wednesday, which included the appointment of 21 new deputy ministers and 24 new security directorate heads.
The reshuffle moved General Abu Bakr Abdel Karim to the position of deputy minister for public relations and human rights, with General Montasser Abu Zeid becoming deputy minister for the Central Upper Egypt division, and Adel Rashad chosen as the deputy minister for communications.
General Aly Ahmed Abu Zeid was appointed as the new head of the North Sinai Security Directorate. Other newly assigned security directorate heads included General Hisham Lotfy for Matrouh, General Ahmed Abdel Gelil for Alexandria, General Mohamed Emad Eddin for Behira, General Saeid Shalaby for Qalyubiya, General Mohamed Atef for Kafr al-Shiekh, General Nabil Abdel Fattah for Gharbiya, General Mahmoud al-Deeb for Port Said, Aly Azazy for Ismailia, General Mohamed Massoud for Monufiya, and General Nasser al-Sayed for Fayoum.
This is the second reshuffle conducted by Ghaffar’s administration, who once headed the National Security apparatus in 2011. The first reshuffle took place 24 hours after his appointment in March, with 25 leading ministry officials appointed, mostly in Upper Egypt’s security directorates, as well as the Cairo and Giza security divisions.
The reshuffle came a few days after Ghaffar sacked head of the Cairo Security Directorate General Osama Bedair and appointed General Khaled Abdel Al in his place. The decision was made following a bombing targeting the Italian Consulate in downtown Cairo in July 11, which left one dead and others injured. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.
Former deputy Interior Minister Abdel Latif al-Badini told Mada Masr that this is a routine annual reshuffle that does not reflect any major shifts within the ministry. Badini explained that the reshuffle is usually used to replace those who have reached retirement age with younger officials.
“The number of people sent to retirement this time is significantly low. This reshuffle is just about changing the positions of some ministry officials,” he explained.
He added that appointing new ministry officials has not only been affected by the series of terrorist attacks that have shaken the country, like the assassination of Prosecutor General Hesham Barakat in late June, but is also linked to Egypt’s general security situation.
“Terrorist threats can happen anywhere in the world. On the general security side, I believe we have witnessed major success in the restoration of security and order,” he asserted.
Former police officer and head of the National Center for Strategic and Security Studies Khaled Okasha believes that the current reshuffle is a continuation of the first reshuffle Ghaffar oversaw following his appointment.
According to Okasha, the reshuffle targets the ministry’s top ranks, with all of the new appointments coming from criminal investigation and information security backgrounds.
“This has been Ghaffar’s philosophy since he was appointed. He depends on officials who come from information backgrounds,” he explained.
Observers usually refer to General Sayed Shafiq, Ghaffar’s deputy of General Security, as the chief engineer behind this policy.
Former Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim was blamed for appointing officials with general security experience, but who lacked an information background. A dependency on officials who had no experience working in information was said to be a major factor in the ministry’s failure to fight terrorism.
Yet, the escalation of terrorist threats, represented by the assassination of Barakat and the Italian Consulate bombing, may challenge this argument, suggesting that counterterrorism efforts should go beyond focusing on intelligence and information.
Okasha believes that it is too early to judge Ghaffar’s approach, because information-based policies usually need more time to yield fruitful results. “These new officials are meant to retain their positions for the coming two or three years. We cannot judge them in just a few months. The war against terrorism is long, and will take years to show real results,” he asserted.
