Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Wednesday appointed Gen Ashraf Mansour, the head of the military's higher learning institute, as Egypt's new defence minister.
Gen Mansour, commandant of Nasser Military Academy, replaces Gen Abdel Maguid Saqr, who was appointed in July 2024.
The appointment of Gen Mansour was announced a day after parliament's lower chamber, the House of Representatives, approved a cabinet reshuffle.
The new cabinet, including the new defence minister, was sworn in on Wednesday by Mr El Sisi, who has the exclusive right to pick the defence minister, not the prime minister as is the case with other ministerial posts.
The defence appointment comes as the nation of 108 million is facing serious regional challenges, such as the civil war in neighbouring Sudan. An estimated 1.5 million people have fled to Egypt since the war broke out in April 2023.
Israel's menacing presence
According to media reports and sources in Cairo, Egypt has in recent weeks stepped up its support for the Sudanese Armed Forces in the fight against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, a position that conforms with Mr El Sisi's conviction that state institutions must be protected at all costs and his often repeated warnings that allowing the armed forces and police to disintegrate invariably leads to chaos.
Egypt also has to contend with the menacing presence of Israel's military in Gaza across its eastern border, after two years of war in the coastal enclave that has plunged relations between the two neighbours to their lowest level since they signed a peace treaty in 1979.
Egypt also regards Libya, its western neighbour, as a potential threat to national security on account of occasional bouts of violence there and the existence of two rival administrations.
The threat to Egypt's national security posed by Ethiopia's vast dam on the Nile is possibly the most serious in the eyes of the Egyptian government, with Mr El Sisi labelling Cairo's water dispute with Addis Ababa an existential threat.
Show of military strength
Egypt has been bolstering ties and military co-operation with Ethiopian neighbours Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti, to put pressure on the Horn of Africa nation to show more flexibility in finding a diplomatic solution to the water dispute. Cairo officials have also said Egypt will not tolerate landlocked Ethiopia gaining a permanent foothold on the Red Sea coast.
The extent of Egypt's military involvement in Somalia, an Arab League member and now also a close ally, was laid bare on Wednesday when the Egyptian military posted on its spokesman's Facebook account a video of what it called "istefaf", or show of force, by its military contingent there.
Egyptian troops' presence in Somalia is part of a new African Union peacekeeping force but deployment began nearly two years ago, with sources saying part of the mission is to protect the government and engage in counter-terrorism operations against the militant Al Shabab group.
In video footage posted on Wednesday, scores of armoured fighting vehicles painted white and bearing the letters 'AU' were shown, as well as camouflaged helicopter gunships and light aircraft.
Egyptian commandos staged counter-terrorism drills simulating raids on militant hideouts, as well as search-and-rescue missions.
The video clip was the first of the Egyptian military contingent since they began to deploy there in 2024.
Watching Tuesday's parade and military drills were Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who visited Cairo last week, as well as Egypt's departing defence minister, Gen Saqr. Also seated in the main stand was Gen Ahmed Khalifa, Egypt's chief of staff.
