On June 30, 2021, the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs hosted Prof. Dr. Siddig Tawer, Member of the Transitional Sovereign Council of Sudan, and patron of the Sudanese-Egyptian Popular Initiative, accompanied by the Sudanese Ambassador to Egypt, Mr. Mohamed Elias, to speak about the developments in his country, after more than two years since the outbreak of the Sudanese youth revolution in December 2018. The seminar was opened by Ambassador Dr. Ezzat Saad, ECFA Director, and attended by a number of ECFA members, ambassadors and academics, concerned with Sudanese affairs.
Dr. Tawer affirmed that the challenges facing Sudan and Egypt are the same, and necessitate strengthening ties and relations, jointly addressing challenges, and benefiting from their capabilities together, pointing to the need to confront the voices that are seeking to envenom the relationship between the two countries, in parallel with working to re-emphasize the spirit of trust and cooperation, and mutual backing, upon which the two countries have embarked vigorously since the outbreak of the Sudanese revolution in late 2018.
Moreover, he referred to a number of challenges facing Sudan in particular, including: the continued spread of weapons in a number of regions of Sudan, and threats attempting to sabotage the societal bonds, such as the escalation of tribal conflicts, which transcended rural areas and wealthy regions to major Sudanese cities such as Port Sudan, Kassala and others, in an unprecedented manner and without any objective reasons, just under the pretext of exercising freedom.
While the issue of South Sudan also represents one main challenge of these, which undoubtedly concern Egypt and Sudan to the same extent, since the emergence of a failed state in South Sudan will result in instability in Sudan, and then in the regional environment, with Egypt at its core. This is noticeable in the increase in the number of Sudanese displaced people in the countries of the region, including Egypt. Hence, Dr. Tawer called for the necessity of Egyptian involvement in this regard, without hesitation, in parallel with the strengthening of cooperation and links with the State of Sudan in its current stage which is very delicate.
