To be fair to the area controllers at Cairo, I have often found them to be more 'switched on' than some of their counterparts in some European countries. I agree that things can be done a little differently since when I used to fly into Cairo, they simply didn't use the published SIDs and STARs and outbounds from the 'resort' airfields (as previously mentioned) are often given radials to climb on etc.
When compared to their next door neighbour, Egypt has a far superior ATC system to Libya, so I think using the 'North African' generalisation is a bit unfair in this context anyway!