Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, president of Egypt, has said that the country needs to reduce birth rates in order to avoid a catastrophe.
According to President al-Sisi, in order for Egypt to effectively provide jobs and social services to its citizens, the number of births per year must be reduced from the current level of over two million to 400,000.
Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Egypt’s minister of health and population, claimed that “having children is a matter of complete freedom,” which Mr. al-Sisi criticized.
“Leaving their freedom to people who potentially do not know the extent of the challenge? In the end, it is the whole of society and the Egyptian state which will pay the price,” al-Sisi, who was speaking at the first Global Congress on Population, Health and Development, was quoted by the AFP news agency.
“We must organize this freedom otherwise it will create a catastrophe,” he added.
He suggested that since China “succeeded in their population control policy,” Egypt could adopt China’s one-child policy.
According to Mr. Abdel-Ghaffar, Egypt, one of the most populous nations in Africa, has seen a population increase of 40 million since 2000, bringing the total to 105 million.
Additionally, Mr. al-Sisi suggested that other African nations implement population management policies due to the continent’s limited resources and burgeoning population.
Source-BBC
