With the rise of Mussolini and fascism in Italy and the eventual Italian invasion of Egypt during World War II, relations became severely strained.

[2] In April 2016, diplomatic relations between the two countries were seriously strained when an Italian PhD student from the University of Cambridge was found brutally murdered in Cairo after he went missing in January of the same year.

Subsequently, Italy withdrew its ambassador to Egypt for consultations in Rome regarding the criminal death of Giulio Regeni, who, at the time, conducted critical academic research on Egyptian labour rights and trade unions.

As a result, the Italian press and foreign ministry pointed at the systematic human right violations in Egypt, and threatened with political sanctions unless police leadership and practices undergo significant revisions.

[3] The detention of Patrick Zaki, the Egyptian student who is enrolled on an Erasmus Mundus Master's degree at the University of Bologna, has further strained diplomatic relations.