Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Also reported is commander of the 23rd Mechanized Division, Third Field Army.

Abd el-Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi (عَبْد اَلْفَتَّاح سَعِید حُسَيْن خَلِیل اَلْسِیسِي, pronounced ; born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014.

Sisi was born in Cairo in 1954.

As a young man, he joined the Egyptian Army and held a post in Saudi Arabia before enrolling in the Egyptian Army's Command and Staff College.

Sisi was born in Old Cairo on 19 November 1954 to Said Hussein Khalil al-Sisi and Soad Mohamed, both from Monufia Governorate.

He grew up in Gamaleya, near al-Azhar Mosque, in a quarter where Muslims, Jews and Christians resided and in which he later recalled how, during his childhood, he had heard church bells and watched Jews flock to synagogue unhindered.

He later enrolled in the Egyptian Military Academy, and upon graduating he held various command positions in the Egyptian Armed Forces and served as Egypt's military attaché in Riyadh.

They were married upon Sisi's graduation from the Egyptian Military Academy in 1977.

He attended the following courses:

El-Sisi received his commission as a military officer in 1977 serving in the mechanised infantry, specialising in anti-tank warfare and mortar warfare.

In 1987, he attended the Egyptian Command and Staff College.

Sisi received additional training at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in the United Kingdom in 1992, and at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 2006.

In 1992, he continued his military career by enrolling in the British Command and Staff College, and, in 2006, enrolled in the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

He became Commander of the Northern Military Region-Alexandria in 2008 and then Director of Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance.

El-Sisi was the youngest member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces of Egypt.

While a member of the Supreme Council, he made controversial statements regarding allegations that Egyptian soldiers had subjected detained female demonstrators to forced virginity tests.

He is reported to have told Egypt's state-owned newspaper that “the virginity-test procedure was done to protect the girls from rape as well as to protect the soldiers and officers from rape accusations”.

He was the first member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to admit that the invasive tests had been carried out.

Before becoming director of military intelligence in 2010, he served as a mechanized infantry commander.

He never saw active combat throughout his military service.

Sisi was the youngest member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, serving as the director of military intelligence and reconnaissance department.

After the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and election of Mohamed Morsi to the Egyptian presidency, Sisi was appointed Minister of Defense by Morsi on 12 August 2012, replacing the Hosni Mubarak-era Hussein Tantawi.

He was later chosen to replace Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and serve as The Commander-In-Chief and Minister of Defense and Military Production on 12 August 2012.

Sisi's family origins were in the Monufia Governorate.

He is the second eldest of eight siblings.

His father, a conservative but not radical Muslim, who later had six additional children with a second wife, owned an antiques shop for tourists in the historic bazaar of Khan el-Khalili.

Sisi and his siblings studied at the nearby library at al-Azhar University.

Unlike his brothers – one of whom is a senior judge, another a civil servant – el-Sisi went to a local army-run secondary school, where he developed a relationship with his maternal cousin, Entissar Amer.

On 12 August 2012, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi made a decision to replace the Mubarak-era Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, with then little-known el-Sisi.

He also promoted him to the rank of colonel general.

As the minister of defense, and ultimately commander in chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, Sisi was involved in the military coup that removed then-president Morsi from office on 3 July 2013, in response to the June 2013 Egyptian protests.

Morsi was replaced by an interim president, Adly Mansour, who appointed a new cabinet.

Demonstrations, sit-ins, and violent clashes between supporters of Morsi and security forces followed, culminating in the Rabaa massacre which killed at least several hundreds of civilians.

Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian military in 2014, Sisi served as Egypt's deputy prime minister from 2013 to 2014, minister of defense from 2012 to 2013, and director of military intelligence from 2010 to 2012.

He was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal in January 2014.

On 26 March 2014, in response to calls from supporters to run for the presidency, Field Marshal el-Sisi retired from his military career and announced that he would run as a candidate in the 2014 presidential election.

The election, held between 26 and 28 May, featured one opponent, Hamdeen Sabahi, saw 47% participation by eligible voters, and resulted in Sisi winning in a landslide victory with 97% of the vote.

Sisi was sworn into office as President of Egypt on 8 June 2014.

Sisi rules an authoritarian regime in Egypt, and some elements of his rule have been described as even more strict than that of prior authoritarian leader Mubarak.

In the 2018 presidential election, Sisi faced only nominal opposition (a pro-government supporter, Moussa Mostafa Moussa) after the military arrest of Sami Anan, threats made to Ahmed Shafik with old corruption charges and an alleged sex tape, and the withdrawal of Khaled Ali and Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat due to the overwhelming obstacles presented, and violations committed, by the elections committee.