Egypt’s early closing order jolts Cairo’s night life as war-driven oil costs soar

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CAIRO (AP) — The Egyptian government is seeking ways to conserve oil-powered electricity during the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, enacting at least one policy that threatens Cairo's identity as a city that never sleeps.

The government imposed new nationwide closing times Saturday for stores, restaurants and cafes, ordering them to shut early and interfering with their ability to operate during critical hours.

“It’s ruinous,” said Youssef Salah, a cafe owner in Cairo. “It deprives us from our peak time.”

The decision is one of a series of measures the government has taken in recent weeks to mitigate the fallout of the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran, which has shaken the Middle East and the global economy. Though Egypt is not a party to the widening conflict, the most populous Arab country is one of the most impacted by the war’s far-reaching repercussions, including higher oil prices and disrupted shipping routes.

The early closures will have dire repercussions on hundreds of thousands of small businesses found on almost every street, alley and lane across the country. Some of them — including many eateries, juice shops and cafés — usually operate nonstop.

Salah, the café owner in Cairo’s middle-class neighborhood of Sayeda Zeinab, said he was forced to cut his 35-member workforce by 40%.

The 46-year-old father of three used to keep his venue open 24 hours a day, with peak hours starting in the evening till the first hours of the new day. The late-night shifts are now abolished, he said.

“It’s painful,” Salah said as he closed his shop doors at 9 p.m. (19:00 GMT) on Saturday.,

Yet two days into the decision, some Egyptians danced around the government order. Some cafes closed their front doors as patrons inside went about smoking shisha or playing chess, dominos or cards.

Others took to social media to criticize the early closures.

“The Butterfly effect,” Mahmoud Elmamlouk, editor of Cairo24, one of the biggest news outlets in Egypt, wrote on social media after cafe shops shuttered their doors Saturday evening. “The closure of Strait of Hormuz has deprived us from smoking shisha in Talbia,” he wrote, referencing a working-class neighborhood in greater Cairo.

Ayman Harbi, who works at a store in Downtown Cairo, called on the government to extend the opening hours at least till midnight, saying that closing at 9 p.m. is “extremely difficult” for business like his.

“Our work in the summer usually starts after 8 p.m. (18:00 GMT),” he said. “Forcing me to close at 9 p.m. (19:00 GMT) makes the workday pointless.”

Magdy al-Deeb, a business owner, urged the government to reverse the decision to preserve jobs, especially for cafes and small businesses.

“Where will all those people (workers) go,” he asked of those who could lose their jobs. Smoking a shisha — the tobacco burning water pipe — in a Cairo café, he said society "must protect people’s livelihoods.”

The decision to close businesses early has also changed to the lifestyle for Egyptians accustomed to being able to buy virtually anything at any time, especially in big cities like Cairo and Alexandria.

A nighttime tour across Cairo Saturday and Sunday revealed the city's usually vibrant streets turned eerily quiet.

Shops, restaurants, malls and cafes across the country have been ordered to close at 9 p.m. (19:00 GMT) for a month.

The measures -- described by the government as “exceptional” — include dimming streetlights and roadside advertising. The government’s district offices in the New Administrative Capital, east of Cairo, were also ordered to close by 6 p.m. (16:00 GMT). Civil servants were also asked to return working from home for one day a week in April.

The government exempted tourist-attraction areas from its energy-saving measures, given that tourism is a major source of foreign currency for the cash-strapped country. The exempt areas include the Red Sea tourist resorts of Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh, Marsa Alam, as well as the antiquities-rich southern cities of Aswan and Luxor.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly said the measures aim to curtail oil consumption.

“The alternative would be to resort again to further price increases,” he warned.

The government already hiked prices for fuel and cooking gas earlier this month as global energy prices soared with the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial chokepoint for about a fifth of global oil supply.

Global energy prices have skyrocketed since the start of the war on Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched massive airstrikes on Iran, which retaliated with attacks on oil and gas infrastructure across the Persian Gulf and by squeezing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

The increases hit Egypt hard given that its population of over 108 million people consumes $20 billion of oil products annually, including fuel used to operate power plants.

The country imports 28% of its gasoline and 45% of its diesel and Madbouly said the nation's oil bill had more than doubled from January to $2.5 billion.