Sisi leads military funeral of former PM Sherif Ismail

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi led a military funeral for former prime minister Sherif Ismail Sunday.

Ismail died on Saturday at the age of 67.

The funeral prayers were held at Lt. Gen. Hussein Tantawi Mosque in New Cairo in the presence of Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli, Speaker of the House of Representatives Hanfy Gebaly and Defense Minister Mohamed Zaki.

Sisi offered condolences to the family of the deceased. He said Ismail was such a brilliant national figure and had sincerely served the nation during a critical phase. Ismail is greatly appreciated by Egypt and its people, Sisi noted in a tweet yesterday.

Ismail was born on July 6, 1955. He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering in 1978. He worked for Enppi, a major engineering company, in 1979 until 2000.

Ismail also served as undersecretary of the Petroleum Ministry from 2000 until 2005. He was the board chairman of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) from 2005 until 2007. He then chaired the board of the South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope) from 2007 until 2013.

On July 16, 2013, Ismail was appointed minister of petroleum until September 18, 2015.

On September 19, 2015, Ismail was named prime minister and served until June 5, 2018.

He then served as a top assistant to the president for national projects on June 14, 2018 until his death on February 4, 2023.