CAIRO - The Egyptian Foreign Ministry is working hard to get permission from the Malian authorities for a military plane to land in Mali, in order to evacuate Egyptians and the Ahly football team, after clashes erupted there on Monday, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported Wednesday. "This [Wednesday] morning, we phoned the Chargé d'Affaires at the Egyptian Embassy, Counsellor Shadi Sharqawi, who is currently in Bamako, in order to check on the Egyptian community and the mission of Al-Ahly football club there," the Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Plenipotentiary Amr Roshdi, said. The Foreign Ministry Wednesday affirmed that all the Egyptians in Mali are safe and none of them has been injured in the turbulence in the wake of Monday's military coup. Al-Ahly football team were supposed to arrive home in Cairo on Tuesday after playing their first leg match in the round of 16 of the African Champions League against Stade Malien on Sunday, a fixture which the Malian team won 1-0. Meanwhile, the soldiers who staged a coup in Mali in March said they had thwarted Monday's counter-coup by foreign-backed forces loyal to the ousted president. Several people were killed in a gunfight on Monday between Mali coup troops and the presidential guard, loyal to ousted leader Amadou Toumani Toure, at the national TV and radio station. Sharqawi stressed that the situation now is stable and that the armed forces are in control of most of the cities in the country, as well as most of the capital, Bamako, adding that things are much better today. "The airspace is still closed, but the Egyptian Embassy is in touch with the Malian Air Force to ensure that the Egyptian military plane can land," Roshdi added. He explained that the Malian Air Force said that it has prepared a permit to let the Egyptian plane land, but it does not guarantee the safety of the plane and the safety of the road from the hotel leading to the airport, where the Ahly team are staying, adding that the airport and the road are both closed. Al-Ahly board member Khaled Mortagi said that the team and all the players are okay, but they are unable to leave the hotel, according to instructions from the Egyptian Embassy in Mali. "The CAF [Confederation of African Football] is the responsible for securing our players there. Before the game, we expressed our concerns and fears, but CAF officials said it was safe. The CAF must now take responsibility. "We will ask the CAF to postpone the return leg in Cairo, because our homecoming has been delayed," Mortagi Mortagi told the official BBC website on Tuesday. Ahly were due to face Stade Malien in the second leg at 6:30pm (Cairo Local Time [CLT]) on May 12, but the fixture has now been postponed till a yet-to-be-decided date.
