North Sinai

The Arab Republic of Egypt plays an important role in Romania's strategy to develop relations with states in Africa and the Middle East, being in fact Romania's main trade partner in the region.

Egypt has created a "national council" to combat the rise of Islamist "terrorism" which has targeted its security forces and Coptic Christian minority, in a presidential decree issued on Wednesday.

The decree, published in Egypt's official gazette, sets up a "national council to combat terrorism and extremism" by adopting a "global national strategy."

At least 36 people were killed and more than 100 injured in bomb attacks on two Coptic churches on Palm Sunday, in the latest assault on a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants.

Egypt's army clashed with jihadists in Sinai Friday, leaving two children dead, as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi flew home to deal with a wave of militant attacks that killed at least 30 people.
      
The top brass vowed to hunt down those behind the violence.
      

Militants fired a barrage of rockets and set off a car bomb Jan. 29 killing at least 26 people, mostly soldiers, in Egypt's North Sinai province, where security forces are battling a raging Islamist insurgency.
      
The deadly assaults were swiftly claimed by the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group that has captured chunks of territory in Syria and Iraq.