Morsi cancels Rafah visit for security reasons

Unsettled security situation in the border area between Egypt and the Palestinian Gaza strip forced Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi to cancel a Friday visit to the border town of Rafah, security sources said to Arabstoday. Morsi was supposed to meet with Coptic Christian families residing in Rahah, who were forced earlier to leave their town after they received death threats from Islamist extremist groups. The Egyptian President ordered security authorities to ensure safety of the Coptic Christian families in Rafah after returning them to their homes. The families will now meet the President on Friday in another Northern Sinai town, al-Arish. The meeting will follow the President’s Muslim Friday prayers, meetings with and tribal leaders, as well as army staff participating in the military raid in which the Egyptian army is haunting Jihadist groups in Sinai. Mariam Metias, a Coptic Christian woman from Rafah told Arabstoday she was informed that she will meet the President in al-Arish, but she is yet to know where this meeting will take place in the city and who else will be attending. Local residents in Rafah told Arabstoday that army officers have toured in the city on Thursday, particularly in the al-Safa neighbourhood, where they collected the names of those who live in upper and ground floors of the neighbourhood's buildings. Military patrols and armoured vehicles were sweeping the area were the families live. "We fell safer at the moment," a local resident said to Arabstoday. Morsi's visit to al-Arish will be his third to North Sinai province since he took his office. It comes in a time where militant clashes are still taking place from time to another between Jihadist gunmen and Egyptian army-police forces. Before his visit to al-Arish, Morsi issued a decree on Thursday sacking the head of the Central Authority of Organisation and Administration Safwat al-Nahas, and appointed the authority's Secretary General Jihan Abdelrahman at his place on temporary basis. Sources within the Egyptian presidency said to Arabstoday Morsi's decree came after he received reports that the authority is "covering" several corruption cases in many of Egypt's state institutions.