Children of slain soldiers address Police Academy ceremony

CAIRO – 19 July 2017: Paying the price of unconditional sacrifice, the children of Egyptian martyrs have long had great support from President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

After giving a speech at the Police Academy graduation ceremony on Wednesday, the daughter of martyr Yasser al-Hadidi, Alia said that Sisi thanked her stressing that her father is a hero who is worth respect.

Yasser al-Hadidi, inspector of public security in southern and northern Sinai, was killed on March 8 in the city of Arish.

During her speech, she asserted that “she felt sad on the day her father travelled,” adding that she asked him not to leave to Sinai.

In the same ceremony, Omar Mohammed Jaber the son of Mohamed Abdel Moneim Jaber, said that he is “proud that his father was martyred,” explaining that he joined the police academy to “complete the heroic path of his father.”

In turn, Sisi shook hands with Mohammed Jaber.

On July 10, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education, announced that children of martyrs are exempted from paying tuition fees of public and private universities.

Since 2013, state security forces, represented by both the army and the police, have been engaged in violent clashes with an Islamist insurgency in parts of the North Sinai governorate.

The Islamist insurgency has killed hundreds of Egyptian security forces, predominantly in North Sinai. The army also announced it has killed hundreds of militants.