Egypt–Sudan relations

Egypt-Sudan relations

Egypt	Sudan

Egypt–Sudan relations are the bilateral relations between Egypt and Sudan.

History[]

The triangular relationship among the United Kingdom, Egypt, and Sudan evolved during the period of Britain’s rule in the Nile valley between 1882 and 1955 (see Sultanate of Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), until Sudan was officially split from Egypt in 1956.^[1] Two imperial powers, Britain and Egypt, sought to control Sudan.^[1] This rivalry led to the rise of Sudanese elites who tended to split into anti-Egyptian and anti-British factions.^[1] The British, after relinquishing control at Sudanese independence, found it relatively easy to leave the Sudanese to their own devices.^[1] Egypt still shared a long border and continued to view Sudan as part of its backyard, a feature of the bilateral relationship that the government of Sudan found especially irksome.^[1]

The Nile, Egypt’s lifeline, flows through Sudan before reaching Egypt.^[1] An estimated 95 percent of all Egyptians depend on the Nile for fresh water.^[1] In 1959 the two countries agreed on a formula for sharing the water, whereby Sudan was authorized to use approximately one quarter of the flow and Egypt about three quarters.^[1] The division was predicated on a set annual flow, which varies enormously from year to year.^[1] There is usually a surplus above this amount.^[1] As a result, use of Nile water by other riparians had not, by 2011, resulted in a crisis with Egypt and Sudan.^[1] Nevertheless, none of the other eight riparian states was signature to, nor received any water allocation in, this 1959 bilateral agreement.^[1] Since 2000 Sudan had begun expressing an interest in changing the terms of the agreement so that it would be able to use a larger percentage of the flow.^[1] Seven of the eight other riparian states—Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda—also pressed for a revised water allocation formula.^[1] In 1999 the nine countries formed the Nile Basin Initiative as a forum for discussion about cooperating in the development of the Nile Basin.^[1] Since then, no agreement had been reached by 2011, mainly because Egypt and Sudan refused any reduction in their share of water.^[1] Egypt was also concerned that the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement would result in another riparian state in South Sudan.^[1] Egypt had hoped for a united Sudan because South Sudan will be another state with which it might have to negotiate water rights.^[1] In 2010 there was a sharp division between seven of the riparian states, which reached their own agreement, and opposition to that agreement by Egypt and Sudan.^[1]

While Egypt and Sudan generally agreed on the Nile water question, they had failed to resolve a longstanding dispute over the location of their border near the Red Sea, an area called the Hala'ib Triangle.^[1] Egypt occupied the disputed territory, but the matter remained ripe for future conflict.^[1] Al-Bashir revived the controversy as recently as 2010 when he stated that Hala’ib was Sudanese and would stay Sudanese.^[1]

Relations between the two countries since the 1989 Sudanese coup have had their ups and downs.^[1] They reached a nadir in 1995, when elements of the Sudanese government were complicit in a plot by an Egyptian terrorist group, Gama'a Islamiyya, to assassinate Egypt’s president, Husni Mubarak, while he was en route from the Addis Ababa airport to an Organization of African Unity (now African Union) summit in Ethiopia’s capital.^[1] By the end of 1999, Egyptian anger toward Sudan had subsided, and President al-Bashir visited Egypt, where the two leaders agreed to normalize diplomatic relations.^[1] Al-Bashir returned to Cairo in 2002, at which time they expanded cooperation on a variety of practical issues.^[1] Mubarak repaid the visit by going to Khartoum the following year.^[1] In 2004 al-Bashir again went to Cairo, where the two leaders signed the dealing with freedom of ownership, movement, residence, and work between the two countries.^[1] There has been cooperation on counterterrorism and development projects drawing water from the Nile, and the two governments agreed to establish a free-trade zone along the Sudan–Egypt border, where they would exchange commodities free of duty.^[1] Sudan has particularly appreciated Egyptian verbal and moral support for its policy in Darfur.^[1] Egypt also sent troops to the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur.^[1] Egyptian investments in Sudan reached US$2.5 billion by 2008 while Sudanese investments in Egypt totaled almost US$200 million.^[1] By 2010 Egyptian–Sudanese relations were better than they had been in many years, although several long-term contentious issues, such as the future status of South Sudan, ownership of the Hala’ib Triangle, and use of Nile water, remained unresolved.^[1]

Egypt nevertheless began preparing for the possible independence of South Sudan.^[1] In an effort to keep track of developments there, Egypt had about 1,500 military personnel assigned to the United Nations Mission in Sudan and had begun supporting a number of development projects in the South.^[1] It had a consulate in Juba, and Mubarak traveled there in 2008.^[1] Salva Kiir visited Cairo in 2009, when Egypt made clear it would accept the results of the January 2011 referendum on secession.^[1] In 2010, Egypt also offered a US$300 million grant for Southern water and electricity projects along the Nile.^[1]

Egypt's policy on Sudan was that it was in favour of a united Sudan, and therefore Egypt was not directly involved in the Sudan Peace Process that gave the peoples of South Sudan the right to secede and form an independent state in 2011 after the long Sudanese Civil War.^{[citation needed]}

References[]