The governor of North Sinai has ruled out the possibility of displacing residents of the Egyptian governorate at any point in the futre as a measure to fight terrorism, in comments quoted on Saturday. "It is us who will build this sacred spot and we shall die and live on it," Abdel-Fattah Harhour was quoted as saying by Al-Ahram's Arabic website. "The state constructs and does not displace... we will not leave a single span of it." The restive governorate has been a hotspot for militant violence over the past decade. Harhour said that authorities are keen to lead a turnaround in the fortunes of North Sinai, widely seen as one of the most underdeveloped areas of the country. He said the Egyptian cabinet has recently approved the establishment of a state university in Arish, the governorate's capital, although the decision has yet to be ratified by presidential decree. In March last year, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi promised that the Sinai peninsula would be "fully developed" by the end of his first term in 2018. al-Sisi said his government had set up a plan that included EGP 10 billion ($1.28 billion) worth of development projects in Sinai, and would take around a year and a half. source: Ahram Online
