Egypt will recognize South Sudan as an independent state after it voted to secede from Sudan, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Elaraby said on his first visit abroad since an uprising ousted former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
The new Egyptian government also said it would introduce a new proposal to Nile Basin nations to try to overcome a stalemate on sharing the river’s waters, as a seven-minister delegation headed by Egypt’s prime minister arrived in Khartoum on Sunday.
“Sudan intends to be the first to recognize Juba [the capital of South Sudan] and Egypt intends to be the second to recognize the South,” Elaraby said in Khartoum.
The delegation was to visit Juba yesterday.
Egypt had pressed for its ally Sudan to remain united to preserve 1929 and 1955 Nile Basin treaties which allocated the lion’s share of river waters to Egypt and its -southern neighbor Sudan.
However, after decades of north-south civil war, Southern Sudanese voted to become independent on July 9.
South Sudan has not declared a position on sharing Nile waters, but most analysts believe it is likely to side with its east African allies.
They have signed a new treaty aimed at ensuring what they say would be a more equitable distribution of the water, worrying Egypt which is struggling to grow food for its burgeoning population.
“We will be offering a new proposal to the Nile Basin states ... and we hope to find a solution which will not harm any nation,” Egyptian Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Hussein Ehsan el-Atfi told reporters in Khartoum.
He did not go into details, but Egyptian government spokesman Magdy Rady said an unfinished and long-stalled project to create the Jonglei Canal in South Sudan, which would channel swamp water back into the Nile, would be discussed in Juba.
“This is still a project — we spent a lot of money on it and there’s still a little money left to finish it,” he said, “This project — if we finish it — it will provide 4 billion extra [liters of water a year].”
“This will be divided between Egypt and South Sudan — if they are not in urgent need of it, we are in urgent need of it,” Rady added.
The two neighbors also agreed a memorandum to connect their national grids, officials from Sudan and Egypt said.
“Egypt is trying to play a pivotal role in energy to be a hub for the region ... now we are going to Africa through Sudan,” Rady said.
Sudan gave Egypt 5,000 cows as a gift to the new government.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS