Egyptian prime minister Madbouly to visit Sudan on Saturday

Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly will visit Sudan on Saturday, Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported on Thursday.

Madbouly will be accompanied by the ministers of irrigation, electricity, heath, and industry, and trade, as well as high-profile officials from the transport and education ministries.

The one-day visit will deal with cooperation in electric power interconnection, roads, railway connectivity, higher education, trade and industry.

In April, Egypt and Sudan signed an electric power interconnection deal aiming to establish electricity grids linking the two countries. The linkage aims to provide Sudan with capacity of up to 70 megawatts per hour, according to a previous Cabinet statement.

Madbouly’s visit is the first since the formation of the transitional government, SUNA said.

He last visited Khartoum in August 2019, when he participated in a ceremony of a landmark power-sharing agreement between the main Sudanese opposition coalition and the military council.

The agreement led to forming a new governing council, the Sudan transitional government, so as to pave the way towards elections and civilian rule.

Egypt and Sudan have been engaged in negotiations with Ethiopia over the long-standing dispute over the hydroelectric dam Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile since 2011.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, being built around 15 kilometres from the Ethiopian border with Sudan, has been a source of tension between the three nations. Cairo fears the project will significantly reduce its Nile water supply, while Sudan fears it could endanger the safety of its own dams.

Ethiopia said the massive project, which it hopes will make it Africa’s largest power exporter, is key to its development efforts.