CAIRO, June 8 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt’s official statistics agency said on Wednesday that slums make up 38.6 per cent of the inhabited land mass across Egyptian cities.  

According to a statement by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), slums are spread over 226 out of Egypt’s 234 cities.  

Only eight cities in the provinces of Suez, Sharqiya, Kafr al-Sheikh and Giza are clear of slum areas, the agency added. 

Unsafe slum areas occupy 2.8 per cent of  all slums in Egypt, with unsafe slums of the second degree of risk occupying 71.5 per cent of the country’s unsafe slums. 

The state-run agency added that 33 of the unplanned slum areas in the capital, Cairo, and adjacent Giza have undergone development work funded by the Slum Development Fund. 

The government aims to prepare a nationwide map of unplanned areas and develop 27 of them annually in Egypt’s 27 provinces during the period between 2016 and 2019, according to CAPMAS. 

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said last week that the government will complete the development of slums and poor villages in the next two years.