All is not well in the Horn. Tension is mounting, with
the rekindling of old hostilities between Sudan and Egypt, Egypt and
Ethiopia, and Ethiopia versus Eritrea over the Nile and other
geopolitical issues.
All the four countries maintain
that they would not go to war over the Ethiopian Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam (GERD), that has seen Sudan side with Ethiopia, while
Egypt is luring Eritrea and other countries in the region to help
it stop the construction of the $4.8 billion dam.
Sudan,
despite amassing forces on its border with Eritrea in response to
alleged threat by Egypt, still maintains that it is only trying to crack
down on rebel groups on the east of the country and has no plans to go
to war with any country in the region.
Sudan and Egypt
have four outstanding issues; Sudan’s support of the Ethiopian dam, the
dispute over Halayeb Triangle, Turkey’s plans to build a naval dock at
the Red Sea coast of Suakin and Sudan’s ban on the importation of
Egyptian agricultural products. Khartoum also accuses Egypt of backing
rebels in Sudan.
Cairo
is also not happy that Sudan has revived the issue of the disputed
Halayeb Triangle, which Egypt has been occupying since 1995 when
militants allied to Khartoum tried to assassinate former president Hosni
Mubarak in Addis Ababa.
Cairo also accuses Khartoum of hosting members of the Muslim Brotherhood following their expulsion from Egypt in 2013.
Nimat Jad Allah, the Press Attaché at the Sudan Embassy in Nairobi, told The EastAfrican that
the relations between Sudan and Egypt are historically deeply rooted,
although there is a dispute about the continued occupation of the
Halayeb Triangle by Egypt and issue of the Ethiopian dam.
“There
will be no war between these two Arab, Muslim sisterly countries and
the leadership in the two countries are seeking peaceful solution to
their disputes,” said Ms Allah.
She insisted that the
issues will be solved amicably and that Egyptian president Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi, has instructed the media not to be critical of Sudan as the two
countries try to solve the issue bilaterally.
The
latest tension between the two was sparked during Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Sudan in December that saw Khartoum
lease out the Red Sea city of Suakin to Ankara.
Egypt,
which has had sour relations with Turkey, criticised Sudan and claimed
the move was a threat to its national security and that of the Red Sea
region. Turkey plans to build a naval dock in Suakin and rebuild the
ruined Ottoman port city on Sudan’s Red Sea coast.
Gulf states’ rivalries
The International
Crisis Group (ICG) sees the tension in the light of the emergence of a
number of Middle Eastern states that now have significant interests in
both the Horn of Africa and increasingly the Sahel.
According
to the ICG, the Gulf states’ rivalries, which at present place Saudi
Arabia and the UAE on one side, and Qatar and indirectly Turkey on the
other, have begun to spill over into those regions and are complicating
regional relations and conflict management.
“The
Saudi-led war in Yemen has provided particular incentive for Riyadh and
Abu Dhabi — which have signed military co-operation agreements with
Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Somaliland and Sudan — to strengthen their
relations on the Red Sea,” it states.
Sudan has closed
its border with Eritrea and deployed more forces on the eastern part of
the country, after reports that Egypt had deployed forces in Eritrea’s
Sawa base, an area bordering the province of Kassala, Sudan. Khartoum
recalled its ambassador to Cairo following the reports.
Ms
Allah insists that when Foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour spoke about
the deployment of the troops on the border, it was about the general
threats from rebels in the area but did not mention any country.
“Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki is a good neighbour having lived and studied in Sudan,” said Ms Allah.
Presidents
Afewerki and Sisi have both clarified that they are not preparing for
war with Sudan and Ethiopia — that still holds the Eritrean border town
of Badme against the ruling by an international tribunal.
On
the other hand, Ethiopia that is still technically at war with Eritrea,
is concerned that Egypt is planning to attack it through the northern
neighbour and that Cairo has been financing land protests in the Oromo
region since 2015 and funding opposition in Amhara regions.
— Additional Reporting by Mohammed Amin
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