Egypt to cure South Sudan’s power problem

The Egyptian government has agreed to electrify the whole of South Sudan, Minister of Information Michael Makuei Lueth has said.

The agreement was reached during the recent visit of President Salva Kiir to Cairo.

Makuei said President Salva Kiir and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al Sisi discussed and agreed on a range of issues including peace in the region, scholarships for South Sudan and capacity building in diplomacy other institutions.

“They also agreed on training people in poultry and animal husbandry and other training that may be needed. On energy, they agreed on electrification of the whole of South Sudan and draining of the river and training of people in wildlife management,” Makuei told the media on Friday after last week’s cabinet meeting.

He said President Kiir had also invited Egyptian businesses to invest in South Sudan 

Mutual purpose

The Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi had promised to support South Sudan in its political process to stability the country, economically and security-wise. 

According to the office of President, Kiir’s visit to Egypt was to open a new road map for opportunities between the two countries to explore new areas of cooperation.

Several media outlets quoted President Al Sisi saying they discussed River Nile issues and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) being constructed by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile.

“I underscored the importance of reaching a legally binding agreement that regulates the filling and operation of the dam, based on rules of the international law and UN Security Council resolutions on the issue.

“This shall promote stability in the entire region and open up broader prospects for cooperation among Nile Basin countries,” Al Sisi was quoted to have said.

Egypt has accused Ethiopia of violating the international treaties signed during the British colonial time especially the two between the government of the UK, Egypt, and Sudan after Ethiopia announced filling the controversial dam upstream with water for the second time. 

Egypt argued that Ethiopia was not supposed to fill the dam without any legally binding agreement over the equitable allocation of the Nile’s waters. 

According to the report of the International Waters Governance by Nile Basin Initiative, series of colonial-era agreements affect the use of the Nile River. Two commonly cited agreements in terms of water allocation and the purported rights of riparian.

This includes a 1929 Exchange of Notes between His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and the Egyptian Government about the Use of the Waters of the River Nile for Irrigation Purposes and the 1959 Agreement between the Republic of Sudan and the United Arab Republic (of Egypt) for the full utilization of the Nile Waters.

Following Sudan’s independence from British and Egyptian rule in 1956, Sudan urged renegotiation of the terms of the 1929 Agreement. 

Agreement

The 1959 Agreement governs the control of certain projects concerning the Nile, as well as water allocation between Sudan and Egypt. The allocation of BCM (billion cubic meters – a measurement unit for water allocation) was changed to 55.5 annually for Egypt and 18.5 annually for Sudan. Other riparian countries were still not allocated BCM. The 1959 Agreement also commits Egypt and Sudan to adopt a “united view” on the claims of upstream riparian states. The current status of these agreements is disputed among the Nile riparian states.

Experts said the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam GERD is part of a long-standing feud between Egypt and Sudan—the downstream states—on the one hand, and Ethiopia and the upstream riparians on the other over access to the Nile’s waters. These are considered a lifeline for millions of people living in Egypt and Sudan. 

The dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt over the usage of the Nile water originated from the construction of the dam on the Blue Nile in 2011 by Ethiopia.

Despite calls by Egypt and Sudan for the international community to intervene in the issue, Ethiopia has argued that it has the right to use natural resources to develop the country.

The United Nations Interim Security Force UNISFA has withdrawn Ethiopian troops serving in the UN peacekeeping force in disputed Abyei in August this year at the request of the government of Sudan.

This came amid a worsening relationship between Sudan and Ethiopia following the filling of the GERD for the second time.

Sudan requested UNISFA in April to withdraw and replace the Ethiopian troops that were announced by the Sudanese Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Mariam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi.

The Minister stated that the decision of Ethiopia to proceed with the second filling of the dam was contrary to international law.

She also accused Ethiopia of encroaching on Sudan’s border on the eastern side of the country.