November 4, 2016 By Ibrahim Tarawallie
Egypt Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs has commended the efforts of the government and its people in overcoming very serious challenges, especially the decade long rebel war and the Ebola crisis.
Ambassador Mohamed Edrees, who was in the country as part of Egypt’s diplomatic outreach to its sisterly African countries to continue interaction and activate bilateral cooperation, told a presser yesterday that the aforementioned challenges were not easy in a short time, but the country was able to deal with them successfully.
He stated that Sierra Leone was in the process of rebuilding and reconstructing when it was hit hard by the deadly Ebola virus disease, which adversely affected the process of development.
“I want to commend the effort done by the government and the people in overcoming serious challenges. What I see is a commitment and serious effort to continue matching forward in order to bypass and overcome the setbacks as a result of the recent Ebola crisis,” he said.
According to him, efforts by the government needed the support from friends and partners of Sierra Leone and assured that Egypt stands committed to continue enhancing their support and cooperating together in achieving the development goals.
Ambassador Edrees maintained that Egypt and Sierra Leone has deeply rooted historically strong relations, noting that they have always stood by Sierra Leone in good and hard times, with their Embassy in Freetown being the vehicle of enhancing cooperation between the two countries.
He said they have always look forward to enhance, build on what they have and push it to new strides and open new venues of bilateral cooperation for the mutual benefit for the people of both countries.
Already, he said there has been active cooperation, especially in the area of capacity building by providing training programmes in various fields through the Egyptian Agency for Partnership and Development.
With regards his visit, the Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs explained that during his meetings with President Ernest Bai Koroma and other senior government officials, some priority areas in their bilateral cooperation were discussed, citing economic development, capacity building, military and security, counter terrorism, agriculture and Health.
He said when President Koroma visited Cairo upon invitation by President Abdul Fattah Alsisi, three priority areas were highlighted -military and security, health and agriculture.
“My visit will not be a onetime but an ongoing build up process in the relations of the two countries. We are keen to promote our bilateral relations through projects oriented and results base approach,” he assured.