Egypt offers to mediate between Khartoum and Juba

January 9, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The Egyptian government has offered to mediate between Sudan and South Sudan to resolve the outstanding issues between the two sides, an official said today.

The Sudanese foreign ministry spokesperson Al-Obeid Marwih told the independent al-Sahafa newspaper that the Egyptian foreign minister Mohamed Kamil Amr will visit Juba and Khartoum next week to discuss the matter.

Amro will meet with Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir and South Sudan president Salva Kiir, he said.

“We did not oppose this [mediation]” Marwih said stressing that the task is not an easy one and pointed out that the three countries have mutual interests.

South Sudan seceded from the north last July in compliance with the referendum results showing an overwhelming desire by southerners to become an independent state.

But relations are now extremely tense between the two neighbors over disagreements over wide range of issues particularly oil, borders and Abyei.

The Egyptian top diplomat is on a tour of the Nile basin countries which also includes Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The main purpose of the trip is to try and reach a common ground on the long standing row over the allocation of the Nile water.

Six Nile basin countries ratified an accord to alter shares of the Nile water as defined in a colonial-era accord which gives Egypt the lion’s share of the water and the right to veto Nile projects proposed by other countries.

Egypt, threatened by rising temperatures and a growing population, is almost entirely dependent on the Nile for its water and has been nervously watching hydropower dam projects take shape in upstream nations.

(ST)