Sudanese reserve warm welcome to Ethiopia’s Abiy
August 17, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese gave Egyptian prime minister a distinctly lukewarm reception during the signing ceremony of the transitional authority on Saturday in total contrast of the warm welcome to his Ethiopian counterpart.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who chairs the African Union during this year dispatched his Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to represent him during the signing ceremony of the agreement on the transitional institutions between The military council and the opposition Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC).
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who helped broker the deal was warmly applauded by the Sudanese when he took the floor to speak.
In his speech, Abiy praised the martyrs of the Sudanese revolution before to say that the Ethiopian people and government are celebrating this agreement with them.
“Your victory is ours and your hopes are ours,” he said before to reiterate Ethiopia’s commitment to supporting the peaceful power transition in Sudan.
Abiy who took power in April 2018, was not a close friend of President Omer al-Bashir and sought to reconcile his country with all the neighbouring countries including Eritrea.
For his part, Madbouly despite the lack of enthusiasm to his speech by the Sudanese audience hailed the Sudanese revolution and voiced Egypt’s support to the aspirations of Sudanese for democracy and peace.
“We reaffirm the determination that future relations between the two countries will constitute an unprecedented breakthrough,” he said pointing to the bonds between Egypt and Sudan that rarely bring together two peoples on earth, as he asserted.
After the revolution, and collapse of the al-Bashir regime, Egypt was suspected by the democratic forces of backing the military council when President al-Sisi backed the military council demand for more time to hand over power to civilians last April.
Also, Egypt’s ban to enter into its territory on the former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and opposition leader in July 2018 besides the arrest and extradition of several opposition activists to the Sudanese government, all these actions make that Cairo is badly perceived in Khartoum today.
(ST)