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 Azmi – Canada
- Ambassador Seif Abdel-Samie – 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 El-Meligy – Ecuador
- Ambassador Wael Hamed Awad – Germany
- Ambassador Mohamed El-Shennawy (former Presidential Spokesman) – Italy, with concurrent accreditation to San Marino
- Ambassador Ihab Fahmy – Spain
- Ambassador Mahmoud Omar – Norway, with concurrent accreditation to Iceland
- Ambassador Khaled Nazmy – Slovenia
- Ambassador Ashraf El-Deeb – Czech Republic, with concurrent accreditation to Montenegro
- Ambassador Morad Mohamed Yousri – Greece
- Ambassador Osama El-Hady Radwan – Ireland
- Ambassador Ahmed El-Hemshery – Ukraine
- Ambassador Amr Hamza – China, with concurrent accreditation to Mongolia
- Ambassador Ihab Abu Saree – Philippines
- Ambassador Haitham Galal – Pakistan
- Ambassador Sameh Farouk – Kazakhstan, with concurrent accreditation to Kyrgyzstan
- Ambassador Amira Mohieddin Fahmy – Singapore
- Ambassador Ahmed Helal – Sri Lanka, with concurrent accreditation to the Maldives
- Ambassador Ahmed El-Shendweily – Nigeria
- Ambassador Mohamed Safwat Ramadan – Senegal, with concurrent accreditation to Gambia and Cabo Verde
- Ambassador Sherif 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 Abdel-Qader – Saudi Arabia, with concurrent accreditation to Yemen
- Ambassador Ahmed Khafagy – Iraq
- Ambassador Tamim Khallaf – Lebanon
- Ambassador Yasser Sorour – Sudan
Consuls General
- Ambassador Mohamed Haidar – Frankfurt
- Ambassador Heba Zaki – Chicago
- Ambassador Ahmed Adel El-Samawy – Hong Kong
- Ambassador Moataz Mostafa Anwar – London
