CAIRO: Mamadou Safayou Barry, a Guinean student, who cycled from his home country almost all the way to Egypt to study at Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, has been offered full support by Sunni Islam’s highest seminary.
Barry, who arrived in Egypt at the beginning of September, met on Tuesday with Dr. Nahla Elseidy, adviser for expatriate affairs at Al-Azhar, who said the institution supports its students.
Elseidy wrote on her Facebook page that “this support not only covers international students in Egypt but also extends abroad. Al-Azhar receives students from all countries, takes care of them, and offers them grants.”
Barry said he was overjoyed to be in Egypt to fulfill his dream of studying at Al-Azhar, and said his desire to study Islam at the university helped him overcome the difficulties he faced during the trip.
He added that parents in his country were proud to have their children graduate from Al-Azhar “which represents a religious destination and Islamic beacon throughout the world.”
Barry said: “I learned about the status of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in my country Guinea and everywhere in Africa, and I wished to join this historic institution.”
The Guinean student has also been gifted a set of books to learn Arabic. He thanked Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb for the support he has been offered.
Local media said that Barry’s lack of funds for flights prompted him to cycle to Al-Azhar.
His journey began about four months ago and he rode through Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Niger. Arriving in Chad, he managed to get financial support for a flight to Egypt.
Guinean cycles via African nations to study at Al-Azhar University
https://arab.news/nfq26
Guinean cycles via African nations to study at Al-Azhar University
- Mamadou Safayou Barry given full scholarship by university after arrival
- He managed to reach Chad where he received money for a flight to Egypt
Syrian leader to meet Putin, Russia seeks deal on military bases
- Russia’s continued sheltering of Assad and his wife since their ouster remains a thorny issue
MOSCOW: Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa will meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, as the Kremlin seeks to secure the future of its military bases in the country.
Putin and Sharaa struck a conciliatory tone at their previous meeting in October, their first since Sharaa’s rebel forces toppled Moscow-ally Bashar Assad in 2024.
But Russia’s continued sheltering of Assad and his wife since their ouster remains a thorny issue. Sharaa has repeatedly pushed Russia for their extradition.
Sharaa, meanwhile, has embraced US President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday praised the Syrian leader as “highly respected” and said things were “working out very well.”
Putin, whose influence in the Middle East has waned since Assad’s ouster, is seeking to maintain Russia’s military footprint in the region.
Russia withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airport in Kurdish-held northeast Syria earlier this week, leaving it with only the Hmeimim air base and Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast — its only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union.
“A discussion is planned on the status of bilateral relations and prospects for developing them in various fields, as well as the current situation in the Middle East,” the Kremlin said of the upcoming meeting in a statement on Tuesday.
Russia was a key ally of Assad during the bloody 14-year Syrian civil war, launching air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria controlled by Sharaa’s Islamist forces.
The toppling of Assad dealt a major blow to Russia’s influence in the region and laid bare the limits of Moscow’s military reach amid the Ukraine war.
The United States, which cheered Assad’s demise, has fostered ever-warmer ties with Sharaa — even as Damascus launched a recent offensive against Kurdish forces long backed by the West.
Despite Trump’s public praise, both the United States and Europe have expressed concern that the offensive in Syria’s northeast could precipitate the return of Islamic State forces held in Kurdish-held jails.
