2024-02-20 14:12:44
Revenue from the Suez Canal has fallen by between 40 and 50 percent, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said, noting the consequences of attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea, Al Ahram reported.
In the 2022/2023 tax year, transit fee receipts reached a record $9.4 billion. The canal is one of the main sources of foreign exchange for the economically challenged North African country.
Al-Sisi highlighted a series of events with a negative effect on Egypt, including the covid pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the civil war in Sudan, political instability in Libya and the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
“All this is happening while the Egyptian government strives to fulfill its obligations to oil companies, partners and financial institutions,” noted the head of state.
In January, the director of the Suez Canal Authority, Admiral Osama Rabieh, announced that in the first two weeks of the month, traffic through the international sea artery was down 30 percent year-on-year. The number of ships passing through the canal fell from 777 to 544.
The Houthis launched missile and drone attacks in the Red Sea in a show of support for the Palestinian organization Hamas in the war with Israel, and the United States and Britain responded with strikes on Houthi military infrastructure to protect shipping in the area, BTA reported.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict began on October 7, when fighters from Hamas and other Palestinian factions attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostages. Tel Aviv launched airstrikes in Gaza and then launched a ground operation in the enclave.