The number of children per family should be regulated to avoid “disaster,” said Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi at the inauguration of the Global Congress on Population, Health, and Development (PHDC 2023). The president’s statement came as one of several remarks about the country’s current population crisis. The comments came as a response to Egypt’s Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar’s speech at a panel discussion titled “Population Growth and the Healthcare Landscape of Tomorrow,” in which he noted that the state cannot mandate any limits on the number of children that a family can have. “Some people are unaware of the seriousness of the [population] challenge, and society and the Egyptian state are paying the price,” the president stated. Al-Sisi highlighted that, despite the abundant resources in Africa, they may not suffice to accommodate the projected population expansion on the continent, which could surpass 1.6 billion people. He added that Egypt must maintain an annual population growth rate of 400,000 for the next two decades – otherwise, the state would be unable to sustain the services and infrastructure that it has built and provided to citizens over…
Egypt’s Al-Sisi Warns Against Population Growth, Calls for Family Planning Measures
September 5, 2023
