Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Supreme Commander of the Egyptian Armed Forces, swore in new Ministers Wednesday in a limited cabinet reshuffle that included a last-minute switch of the Defense Minister.

Lt. General Ashraf Salem Zaher, former Director of the Egyptian Military Academy, was sworn in as the new Minister of Defense and Military Production. He succeeds General Abdel Mageed Saqr, who had held the post since July 2024.

El-Sisi held a meeting with both Saqr and Zaher on Wednesday within the framework of the current Cabinet reshuffle, the Presidency announced in a statement.

In an accompanying move, President El-Sisi also appointed Lt. General Ahmed Fathy Ibrahim Khalifa as the new Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces to replace outgoing Lieutenant General Osama Askar, Egyptian media reported.

The Cabinet was reshuffled on Tuesday under Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, who has held the post since 2018.

President El-Sisi witnessed the swearing-in of the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, along with 18 Ministers, including both new appointees and incumbents whose Ministries were merged under the reshuffle.

The House of Representatives approved the major cabinet reshuffle, which included the appointment of new Ministers and the merging of several Ministries.

Moreover, the posts of Deputy Prime Minister for Human Development and Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development were eliminated.

The shake-up mainly targeted economic and service portfolios, as the country seeks to chart a way out of years of economic crisis.

A long-delayed state privatization plan, urged by the International Monetary Fund as part of an $8 billion loan, seeks to limit the military’s hold on the economy.

El-Sisi has scrapped the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, which was helmed by Rania Al-Mashat - an economist who has been a fixture of El-Sisi’s administration, in different roles, since 2018.

Former World Bank specialist Ahmed Rostom has been named Minister of Planning, while Mahmoud Helmy Al-Sherif has been appointed to the Justice Ministry.

The reshuffle also appointed Diaa Rashwan, Head of the State Information Service, as State Minister for Information, the first in five years.

Former handball champion and three-time Olympian Gohar Nabil has been named Egypt’s new Minister for Youth and Sport.

The Arab world’s most populous nation has struggled under the weight of successive economic shocks, including five currency devaluations in a decade. (Egyptian Media; Photo © Egyptian Presidency/Still image)