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EastWest.eu: SUDAN TURKEY EGYPT: The Ankara-Khartoum axis triggers an armed crisis in the Red Sea

Posted by: Berhane Habtemariam

Date: Friday, 19 January 2018

The Ankara-Khartoum axis triggers an armed crisis in the Red Sea

The temporary transfer of the mythical port of Suakim to Turkey restless Al Sisi, who responds by sending soldiers on an Eritrean base managed by the Emirates. The tension with Ethiopia also rises, while Sudan masses troops at the border. Are you moving towards a regional conflict?

 
Friday, 19 January 2018
The ancient site of the port of Suakin.  REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
The ancient site of the port of Suakin. REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Tension in the Red Sea region continues to rise. The latest updates refer to the sending of new troops by Sudan to the eastern border with Eritrea, fueling the frictions that, in addition to the two countries, also involve Egypt, Ethiopia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.


It all started last month when Recep Tayyip Erdogan went to Sudan. A very important diplomatic mission, also because it was the first time that a Turkish president went to the former Anglo-Egyptian colony, after his independence in 1956.

During the visit, Erdogan and his counterpart Omar al-Bashir signed several trade agreements and also a parallel agreement that was not welcomed by Egypt . The pome of discord is inherent in the temporary sale by Khartoum to Ankara of the historic port city of Suakin , which the Ptolemy dynasty called "the port of good fortune", which now seems to have become a harbinger of ominous signs.

Suakin is located on the Red Sea and between the two hundred and sixteenth century was one of the busiest ports in the area, the ideal crossroads between Africa and Asia, before the decline resulting from the Ottoman invasion. Erdogan has promised huge restorations to bring the location back to its former glory in order to increase tourism.

However, it is clear that once the port has been renovated, it will also serve as a support point for military vessels. In essence, the sale created the premises for Ankara to create a naval base just over sixty kilometers from Port Sudan, the most important port of call in Sudan.

The harsh criticism of Egypt

 

The agreement was severely criticized by Cairo, a traditional enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood and consequently very prejudiced towards Erdogan, considered the political leader of the religious movement.

Not to mention, that the ties between Turkey and Egypt have cooled since Ankara firmly condemned the 2013 Egyptian military coup, which overthrew the democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

For its part, Ankara has sought to ease tensions through statements by Serdar Çam, the president of Tika, the Turkish Development Cooperation Agency, who said that "Turkey is only creating the basic infrastructure Sudan needs ».

Çam explained that "the objective of this commitment is to demonstrate that the countries of the area are effectively able to undertake sustainable development processes, when projects are carried out that consider the real needs of the population, regardless of the size of the loans".

For his part, Khartoum through the Sudanese ambassador to Saudi Arabia replied that "Suakin belongs to Sudan and to no one else and promises that the agreement with Ankara will not harm the security of the Arab countries".

The reassurances, however, were not enough to mend the tear, as evidenced by the reaction of Egypt, which responded by sending on an Eritrean base managed by the United Arab Emirates, on the border with Sudan, a hundred soldiers armed with hi weapons -tech and heavy armored vehicles. And Khartoum reacted by recalling the ambassador to Cairo for consultations and sealing the Kassala region on the border with Eritrea, where he deployed thousands of soldiers.

A warning for Ethiopia

 

The sending of Egyptian soldiers to Eritrea also wants to be a warning to Ethiopia , that for a decade has cooled relations with Egypt, due to the construction of the so-called Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), which began in 2011 and once finished it will be the most important hydroelectric plant in Africa.

The $ 4.8 billion project will be built on the Nile Azzuro , the stretch of the river that originates in Ethiopia and joins with the White Nile in Khartoum, Sudan. To realize the great work, Ethiopia has unilaterally decided to divert the river, while Cairo fears that the location of the dam can reduce by 55.5 billion cubic meters the water of the Nile at its disposal, putting in the development of the country. However, Ethiopia insists that the project will have a positive effect on increasing electricity production in Egypt and Sudan.

It should not be forgotten that Eritrea fought a border war with Ethiopia, which between May 1998 and May 2000 caused the death of about 60 thousand people. Meanwhile, numerous border incidents have occurred over time and the two East African nations are technically still at war.

While Egypt, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are striving to expand their influence and secure allies in the region; relations between the African states involved in the dispute could continue to worsen, leading to the founding of a conflict with Eritrea and Egypt, on the one hand, against Ethiopia and Sudan, supported by Turkey, on the other.

The most immediate hope is that at the next summit of the African Union , scheduled at the end of this month in Addis Ababa, African heads of state will find a solution to avert the risk of a regional conflict.


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