By Coptic Solidarity –
A new round of diplomatic appointments for 2026 has been announced, involving ambassadorial postings across North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as a number of appointments to senior consular positions.
Egypt’s 2026 diplomatic reshuffle has once again highlighted the near absence of Coptic representation within the ranks of the diplomatic corps. Among 41 ambassadorial appointments covering an exceptionally broad range of postings—from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, China, and Greece to Iraq, Nigeria, Philippines and Singapore—only one appointee appears to be Coptic: Ambassador Sylvia Fouad Mikhail, assigned to Madagascar.
The observation is particularly noteworthy because it does not appear to be an isolated occurrence. For decades, the number of Coptic ambassadors serving abroad at any given time has reportedly remained extremely limited, generally numbering no more than two or three among roughly 160 ambassadorial postings worldwide. Equally striking is the fact that Coptic ambassadors are rarely, if ever, appointed to Egypt’s most influential diplomatic capitals or strategically important missions.
Against that backdrop, the 2026 reshuffle appears less as an exception than as a continuation of a longstanding pattern. While appointments were announced to many of Egypt’s most important diplomatic destinations, the sole apparent Coptic ambassadorial appointment was to Madagascar, one of the country’s less prominent diplomatic postings.
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List of appointments
Ambassadors
- Ambassador Mohamed El-Malla – United States
- Ambassador Khaled Mahmoud Azmi – Canada
- Ambassador Seif-Allah Abdel-Samie Qandil – Brazil
- Ambassador Haitham Ibrahim Hosni – Venezuela, with concurrent accreditation to Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada
- Ambassador Ahmed Fawzi El-Sherif – Panama, with concurrent accreditation to Nicaragua and Costa Rica
- Ambassador Walid Abdel-Azaz El-Meligy – Ecuador
- Ambassador Wael Mohamed Hanafi – Germany
- Ambassador Mohamed Ibrahim El-Shennawy (former Presidential Spokesman) – Italy, with concurrent accreditation to San Marino
- Ambassador Ihab Mostafa Abdel-Hamid– Spain
- Ambassador Mahmoud Al-Sayed Omar – Norway, with concurrent accreditation to Iceland
- Ambassador Khaled Ahmed Nazmy – Slovenia
- Ambassador Ashraf Ahmed El-Deeb – Czech Republic, with concurrent accreditation to Montenegro
- Ambassador Morad Mohamed Yousri – Greece
- Ambassador Osama Mohamed Radwan – Ireland
- Ambassador Ahmed Salama El-Hemshery – Ukraine
- Ambassador Amr Hussein Hamza – China, with concurrent accreditation to Mongolia
- Ambassador Ihab Ahmed Abu Saree – Philippines
- Ambassador Haitham Mahmoud Galal – Pakistan
- Ambassador Sameh Mohamed Shehata– Kazakhstan, with concurrent accreditation to Kyrgyzstan
- Ambassador Amira Mohieddin Hussein– Singapore
- Ambassador Ahmed Amer Helal – Sri Lanka, with concurrent accreditation to the Maldives
- Ambassador Ahmed Ezzat El-Shendweily – Nigeria
- Ambassador Mohamed Safwat Ramadan – Senegal, with concurrent accreditation to Gambia and Cabo Verde
- Ambassador Sherif Mohamed El-Gamal – Uganda
- Ambassador Engy El-Semnoudy – Burundi
- Ambassador Rania Abdel-Meguid – Tanzania, with concurrent accreditation to the Comoros
- Ambassador Nazli Ali El-Fayoumi – Republic of the Congo
- Ambassador Mohannad Abdel-Gawad – Chad
- Ambassador Al-Hassan Suleiman Abu El-Saud – Mali
- Ambassador Sylvia Fouad Mikhail – Madagascar
- Ambassador Shahinaz Mahmoud Abu Saree – Togo
- Ambassador Sherine Ismail El-Shahawy – Angola, with concurrent accreditation to São Tomé and Príncipe
- Ambassador Amr Morsi – Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Ambassador Hatem Mohamed Abdel-Qader – Saudi Arabia, with concurrent accreditation to Yemen
- Ambassador Ahmed Hassan Khafagy – Iraq
- Ambassador Tamim َAbdel-Moneim Khallaf – Lebanon
- Ambassador Yasser Ali Sorour – Sudan
Consuls General
- Ambassador Mohamed Haidar – Frankfurt
- Ambassador Heba Zaki – Chicago
- Ambassador Ahmed Adel El-Samawy – Hong Kong
- Ambassador Moataz Mostafa Anwar – London
Ambassadors reassigned to the MFA headquarters, after ending missions
- Mohamed Al-Badry (Germany)
- Gamal Mohamed Metwally (Norway)
- Mo’taz Muharram Zahran (USA)
- Omar Mohamed Youssef (Greece)
- Nahla Mohamed El-Zawahiry (Slovenia)
- Ihab Ahmed Badawy (Spain)
- Bassam Radi Abdel-Hamid (Italy)
- Ahmed Mostafa Mohamed (Singapore)
- Hani Mostafa Ahmed (Sudan)
- Adel Ahmed Ibrahim (Sirilanka)
- Ihab Abdel-Hamid Hassan (Pakistan)
- Alaa Abdel-Moneim Moussa (Lebanon)
- Mahmoud Mostafa Afifi (Checkia)
- Ma’y Mohamed Khalil (Brazil)
- Hazem Hassan Hanafi (Panama)
- Hisham Abdel-Salam Mostafa (D. Congo)
- Ahmed Samir Maezouk (Iraq)
- Sherif Abdel-Hamid Ismail (Tanzania)
- Mundhir Abdel-Aziz Selim (Uganda)
- Barakat Ali Elleithy (Ukrane)
- Ibtisam Rakha Hassan (Kazakistan)
- Nevine Mohamed El-Hussein (Angola)
- Nada Mostafa Fathi (Consul General, Chicago)
- Baher Ahmed Shuawikhi (Hong Kong)
- Amin Ahmed Hassan (Frankfurt)
- Tamer Ahmed Tawfik (Paris)
- Ahmed Youssef Abbas (Port Sudan)
