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Egypt’s air force accused of bombing rebel targets in South Sudan


Egypt’s al-Sisi (L) and South Sudan’s Kiir are said to have agreed to a ‘dirty deal’ (Getty)

Anti-government rebels in South Sudan are accusing Egypt of conducting bombing raids on rebel targets. A statement published by the rebels accuses South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir of risking a regional war.

South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation, having gained independence from Sudan in 2011. The region’s last generational crisis war was an ethnic war mainly between two tribes, the Nuer and the Dinka. That war climaxed with the “Bor Massacre,” which began on November 15, 1991, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing hundreds of thousands of people over a three month period.

A new conflict began on December 15, 2013, led by the president Salva Kiir, of the Dinka tribe, fighting against forces led by vice president Riek Machar, of the Nuer tribe. Kiir and Machar signed a peace agreement in August 2015, but that did little good.

South Sudan is in a generational Awakening era, and this renewed war between the Dinkas and the Nuer would have fizzled out, except that both sides have been importing weapons, often using funds meant to fight poverty. The situation in South Sudan is similar to the war in Syria, which would have fizzled out long ago if it weren’t for massive military aid from Russia, Hezbollah and Iran.

The rebels are accusing Egypt of replicating the situation in Sudan by playing the part that Russia is playing in Syria, and bombing rebel targets on behalf of the government.

Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid denied the alleged air strikes, saying: “Egypt does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.” Reuters and South Sudan News Agency

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Egypt accused of ‘dirty deal’ to sabotage an Ethiopian dam project

The statement by anti-government rebels accusing Egypt of bombing rebel targets in South Sudan says that Egypt and South Sudan are in a “dirty deal” between Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir, and that the deal involves involving weapons sales and sabotage of an Ethiopian dam project:

There is a dirty deal going between Kiir and El-Sisi. the issue of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is one of the main deals being finalized in Cairo. Our intelligence sources in Kampala and Juba confirmed that Egypt wants South Sudan and Uganda to be her regional allies so that she can advance its covert sabotage campaign against the Ethiopian Dam. The man [Kiir] is a double agent; he will cause many problems for the entire East Africa region.

The statement refers to a Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project that Ethiopia has been trying to get built for years. Ethiopians see as is a great national project and a means of overcoming poverty.

There is considerable opposition to the dam project in Egypt because it would affect the flow of water along the Nile river. Egypt depends on the Nile river to supply most of Egypt’s drinking war, to irrigate the Nile Delta, and to generate half of the country’s electricity through the operation of Egypt’s Aswan High Dam.

Egypt’s long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak was able to block development of the Ethiopian dam, but after the “Arab Awakening” in 2011, and the coup that overthrew him, Ethiopia began building the dam. It’s expected to be completed in July. Egypt and Ethiopia have signed an agreement saying that Ethiopia guarantees that Egypt’s water supply will not be affected, but that hasn’t fully reassured many Egyptians.

The South Sudan rebel statement, if true, would indicate that Egypt’s al-Sisi and South Sudan’s Kiir covertly sabotaging the dam in a “dirty deal” that will keep Kiir in power. Egypt Independent and Al-Ahram (Cairo) and Sudan Tribune

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, South Sudan, Dinka, Nuer, Bor Massacre, Salva Kiir, Riek Machar, Syria, Ahmed Abu Zeid, Ethiopia, Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, GERD, Aswan High Dam, Hosni Mubarak
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