Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Wednesday visited the fire-damaged Ramses Central telecommunications hub to assess the damage and review efforts to restore services disrupted across the country. The visit came after a blaze late on Monday at the central Cairo building killed four workers and injured at least 22 others, triggering a nationwide disruption of critical services and a sweeping response from authorities. During the visit, Communications Minister Amr Talaat reported that services were gradually returning to normal after being rerouted through alternative exchanges. He explained that outside the immediate vicinity of the Ramses Central building, internet and landline voice services had been restored, while mobile service quality for all four operators was back to an average of 95% of normal levels. Talaat also briefed the prime minister on sectoral services, noting that a partial outage in the banking sector had been resolved. He confirmed that the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), which suspended all trading on Tuesday as a precaution, had reopened normally on Wednesday after broker services were stabilised. The minister added that the subsidised food distribution system and emergency services had been operating largely without interruption. Madbouly stressed the need to take all necessary measures to confirm the building's structural safety and called for an urgent recovery plan to return the facility to full operation as soon as possible, pending a technical assessment. Before leaving the site, the prime minister thanked the civil defence personnel for their efforts in extinguishing the blaze. The fire prompted a swift response from Egyptian authorities on Tuesday to contain the fallout. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) temporarily doubled the daily cash withdrawal limit to 500,000 Egyptian pounds ($10,400) to facilitate transactions amid the disruption. The victims died from smoke inhalation after being trapped inside the building, authorities said. State-owned operator Telecom Egypt issued a statement mourning the loss of its employees, referring to them as "martyrs of duty" who remained at their posts "until the final moments to protect telecom infrastructure."
