Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met, on Thursday, Lieutenant General Shamseddine Kabbashi, member of the Sovereign Council of Sudan, during a Sudanese delegation to Egypt. The visit came parallel to the border escalation between Sudan and Ethiopia after Sudanese troops advanced in border areas claimed by Ethiopia. The border conflicts between Sudan and Ethiopia resulted from the Ethiopian civil war between the federal government led by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abey Ahmed and Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which demands the impeachment of Ahmed.

Al-Sisi emphasised Egypt’s support of Sudan, saying that “Egyptian support of Sudan represents a constant approach in Egyptian politics over times,” according to the statement of the Egyptian presidency. Earlier, the round of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations was aborted after Sudan insisted on assigning the task of suggesting resolutions for the points of conflict between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to the experts of African Union, which was rejected by both Egypt and Ethiopia. The visit is seen as an attempt to build an alliance between Egypt and Sudan against Ethiopia over the GERD. It is noteworthy that this is not the first Egyptian attempt to do so, the latest was when Abbas Kamel, the director of Egypt’s General Intelligence, visited Sudan before the last negotiations round. However, these attempts failed to convince Sudan to build a joint strategy with Egypt over this issue.