(Ecofin Agency) - Sudan has reached a military cooperation agreement with Egypt. Official sources said this document, signed yesterday, marks the collaboration of both countries in tackling the security issues they are facing.

Initialed by Mohamed Farid, Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces, and his Sudanese counterpart Muhammad Othman Al-Hussein in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, the deal endorses discussions that have been taking place for several months between the two parties.

"The agreement aims to ensure the national security of the two countries and to build up armed forces full of experience and knowledge," said Lieutenant General al-Hussein.

In November 2020, senior officials from the two countries met and agreed to strengthen their collaboration in the areas of rehabilitation, training, border security, counter-terrorism and military industries.

This partnership comes at a time when the two countries are opposed to Ethiopia in the negotiations concerning the Great Renaissance Dam on the Nile. Khartoum and Cairo fear that this major infrastructure for the Ethiopian economy could jeopardize their access to the river's water, and have always fought to prevent Addis Ababa from carrying out its project unilaterally.

In recent years, Egypt has been trying to strengthen its defense, notably by improving its military arsenal and signing security cooperation agreements. Undermined by decades of internal conflicts -particularly in Darfur- Sudan, for its part, is trying to recover from several years of bad governance under el-Bashir, which affected performance in several sectors of the sovereign national functions.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou