![President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit (L) is welcomed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on 10th January 2017 [Egyptian Presidency - Handout/Anadolu]](https://i0.wp.com/www.nileinternational.net/en/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/a42-320x240.jpg?resize=623%2C467)
The senior administrator identifying himself only as Mr Abraham Chol and believed to be close to president Kiir’s family has praised president Kiri’s recent visit to Cairo, saying his country was looking to see more support from Egypt.
“The president’s visit was successful and we agreed to work together (with Egypt) on all issues….we agreed to put the interests first..” Abraham told reporters
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Many observers have rised the red flag over South Sudan’s president recent visit to Egypt after reports of a “dirty deal” where the two leaders have agreed to protect Egypt’s full rights over usage of the Nile waters without any interruption from upstream countries like Ethiopia or Sudan.
According to news reports from Arab newspapers sources, South Sudan president have agreed with his Egyptian counterpart Al-Sisi to cooperate together on the Nile water issues, to work together to stop or even sabotage any Ethiopian government move to continue to build dams on the Blue Nile.
In a new deal know as the “Dirty deal” between Egypt and South Sudan which has raised eyebrows and believed to include Uganda government of Museveni as mediator, the two leaders are said to have agreed to use different means to sabotage Ethiopia’s projects to build dams on the river Nile.
South Sudan government has always looked at Ethiopia with a doubting eye since Ethiopia hosted South Sudan’s armed opposition leader and leader of SPLM/A-IO Dr Rick Machar from 2013 to 2015 after a bloody ethnic civil war broke out in the country.
Dr Riek Machar lived in Ethiopia until a peace agreement mediated by IGAD was signed in August 2015 after which he returned to South Sudan as First Vice President, however Dr Riek fled the country again and is now in South Africa after forces loyal to president Kiir attacked the lightly armed forces of Dr Riek’s SPLM/A-IO in the capital Juba leading to collapse of the peace agreement.
According to Abraham Chol, an administrator in president Sslva Kiir’s office, the government in Juba was just looking out for its greater interest and could not let another country overshadow it’s interest’s.
“We agreed that South Sudan comes first, that’s why we had to talk to the Egyptians as they have more to offer to South Sudan than other neighbouring countries” Abraham Chol told the Journalist in a private interview.
When asked if president Salva Kiir’s visit to Egypt and the agreement to work together on the Nile could affect relations with neighbouring Ethiopia, the senior official in the presidency said that his country could not sacrifice it’s interests for the sake of another country.
“look my friend…South Sudan cannot continue to sacrifice it’s interests because of other countries…be it Ethiopia or others…no way”… said the official who looked serious
According to Al Arab a middleeast based newspaper, the two leaders of Egypt and South Sudan met in Cairo to strike a “Dirty deal” that would see Ethiopia’s ambitions to build a mega dam sabotaged by Egypt with cooperation of President Salva Kir government and backing of President Museveni of Uganda.
“There is a dirty deal going between Kir and Sisi,” Sources close the opposition told Al-Arab, saying they had received reports from close allies inside the government about the purpose of the recent visit of Kir to Cairo which was based on a sudden invitation by Egyptian president Al-Sisi.
“The issue of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is one of the main deals being finalised in Cairo”. the opposition official told Al-Arab newspaper
Ethiopia which is currently building a mega electric dam on the river Nile has been accused by Egypt of trying to reduce and block water flow from the Nile into Egypt affecting Egyptian agricultural interests and survival.
Egypt has said it would do anything in it’s powers to limit or block the building of any major dams on the river Nile so as not to affect it’s water security.
According to reliable sources, the actions that the two leaders Sisi and Kiir agreed would include sabotage and covert activities that would block or delay Ethiopia’s dreams of having a mega dam on the Nile that would supply the country with non-stop electricity for development purposes. Actions against the Ethiopian government as agreed in the “dirty deal” would include covert support and training to Ethiopian armed and non-armed opposition groups, supporting popular uprising, lobbying international support for Egypt and isolating Ethiopia diplomatically, in return president Kiir would receive unlimited and unrestricted support from Egypt interms of arms supplies and financial support.
Egypt has been desperate for allies in the Nile Valley countries to support it’s campaign to stop Ethiopia building the dam as a result president Sisi has rallied Uganda’s president Museveni and now South Sudan’s president Salva Kir in an attempt to isolate Ethiopia.
A call to South Sudan’s information ministry to confirm the alleged “dirty deal” was met with no answer.
However according to the senior official in the presidency Mr Abraham Chol, South Sudan will not sacrifice it’s relations with Egypt because of Ethiopia, he told this journalist in a private interview.
“….It’s our wish, it has been agreed in the close doors meeting….we will stand with Egypt, we cannot sacrifice our relations because of any other countries, Nile water should be allowed to flow freely without any obstruction from Ethiopia or other countries.…” Abraham Chol concluded.
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5 comments
Political expediency. This is not the way to work with neighbor countries.
This is not the way IO operates, but Kiir has no scruples, he would sell his grandmother for more weapons.
And for all to see, the only thing required to force real peace negotiations is a total weapons embargo for South Sudan.
Now please
As if Ethiopia is going to sit idle when a corrupt, murderer and inept Salva Kir is going to interfere in Ethiopia’s affairs is a joke. Without doubt, Kir’s time is numbered. It is a chance for the people of South Sudan finally to have peace post Kir
Fuck you. Weyane, not Ethiopia, interfered in his affairs first, in the guise of peace making. Always in the service of its white masters, of course.
Greetings,
When one looks the patterns what Egypt was doing since the start of the Renaissance dam, it is becoming clear that she is becoming more and more desperate over time.
1) it tried to lobby all nations not to give loan/ or any funding to Ethiopia–Ethiopian solution: we go the unexpected way, namely self financing.
2) Egypt tried to disengage all companies including Salini not to work on it–Ethiopian solution: this issue was discussed and agreed with all concerned parties ahead of time. Salini, the owner, is a person who had a deep knowledge about Ethiopia…
3) They tried to isolate Ethiopia in international arena diplomatically and politically. For this also Ethiopia was well prepared.
Now the future potential challenge and complication: it looks to me Create Britain (GB) is behind this process as a GLOBAL player. 1) GB is known for its odd diplomacy over the past centuries. It was the protectorate or colonizer of Egypt Sudan and Uganda; giving it still some sort of hidden access and leverage to exploit any potential hostilities to GB’s advantage. As of now, (currently) more than 40% of Foreign Direct Investment to Egypt comes from GB. Historically GB used Egypt as its best economic tool against Fathers of the United states in the war of decolonization; the GB stopped cotton importation form the emerging US (of that time) and instead imported from Egypt. They had an unrestricted access to investment in cotton plantation and import from Egypt. As a matter of fact, the whole dam construction undertaking in Egypt was pioneered through GB’s financing for cotton plantation; short of Lake Nasser (which was built by USSR).
To make things short, go to a library and look for water management professional literature–which originated from GB: Fundamentally all of them (without exception) are geared towards transferring more and more water WITHOUT ANY CONSIDERATION ABOUT the up-stream countries or the ecology. This is a hateful deception by GB towards the Upper Nile countries. As one goes through this historical Nile water research works, no wonder that all Egyptian “intellectuals” are badly at odd with the reality on the ground.
Coming to the current geopolitical dynamics: South Sudan is currently in a big mess; so they may decide today this one and tomorrow that one–it is more or less easy for Ethiopia to decode it and follow it up. Uganda looks like an anomalies. at a first look, it did not add up why Uganda work with Egypt to hurt and create chaos in Ethiopia.
I think the following may be the driving factors to which Ethiopian decision makers should take into account in their constant engagement with Uganda and its constant output evaluation: 1) GB was the colonizer of both, so it is easy for Egypt to lean on that for its use 2) Uganda may not like that Ethiopia and Sudan are coordinating security and military so closely, as never had been seen in the past. Uganda seems to be uncomfortable with this fact. Remember Sudan and Uganda were on the opposing sides in the Southern Sudan civil war. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: work on military to military cooperation to include Uganda too, and make them the integral part of a natural defensive collation between Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, and when such a time comes to immediately include South Sudan.
2) Extend and update the LAPSET economic corridor to immediately include Uganda too. Extend the planned railway connection to Intebe or other major Ugandan economic hub; DO NOT STOP IT Juba. This major regional infrastructure investment, from china (and from within) should firmly include Uganda. The electric power pool also shall include Uganda as a key partner, (In the news there had been only that of Kenya and Tanzania, but nothing regarding Uganda, this is a shortcoming!).
3) I haven’t heard any major capital flow to Uganda from the Arabian Gulf Countries (GCC). While this is the case in Sudan and Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government shall try to explore and influence the possibility of Direct Investment of the GCC countries to Uganda to in the Scale of Ethiopia, at least, or more. For Egypt to damage Ethiopia the scale she wanted, there have to be a sustained multi years long preparation/operation and major military base access close to Ethiopia for at least several years. Beyond destroying the Renaissance dam, Egypt have to be able to create a sustained several years long chaos in Ethiopia at minimum.
If Ethiopia plays its diplomacy via the African Union and possibly some major Arab countries, it may cut short and dwarf this bad activity of Egypt and some other hidden hands without a big military expenditure…
Looks like south Sudan was missing her Arab slavery life lol