Security tightened at 30 June Stadium ahead of Pope Francis visit

CAIRO – 28 April 2017: Egypt’s Armed Forces coordinated with state’s security authorities affiliated to the Interior Ministry ahead of Pope Francis’ scheduled visit to the 30 June Stadium on Saturday, the Egyptian Ministry of Defense announced on its official web portal.

Security measures were tightened as Armed Forces’ troops have raised their readiness and deployment level to aid units of the interior ministry in securing the stadium.

Moreover, security checks were heavily installed around perimeters of the stadium, while patrols were ordered around the area to ensure comfortable and secure environment during the Catholic pontiff’s visit.

The Pope landed in Cairo on Friday for a two-day visit. The visit marks the 70th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Egypt and the Vatican.

Pope Francis has brushed off security concerns to forge ahead with the two-day trip to “Umm ed-Dunya” (Mother of the World), as the Pope put it during his speech with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi at Al-Masa Hotel.

The main aim of the visit is to present a united Christian-Muslim front to repudiate violence and extremism, committed by terrorist groups under the name of God.

Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, is now marked as the first pontiff to visit Al-Azhar institution since Pope John Paul II in 2000.

The Armed Forces’ Department of Morale Affairs published a video on the official YouTube account of the Defense Ministry showing “final touches” to the stadium, which is, according to the ministry’s statement, secured using state-of-the-art technology.

For more details about the visit, kindly refer to the following link. [

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