New money is allowing Cairo to embark on bold projects to increase the flow of the Nile
The present Sudan government stands for everything the Egyptian government dislikes and fears, including Islamist extremism, international terrorism, domestic instability, hostility to its neighbours and the United States. In 1995, President Hosni Mubarak blamed Sudan for the attempt on his life in Addis Ababa (AC Vol 38 No 16). Yet Cairo and Khartoum are now trying to get back to ‘business as usual’. For the National Islamic Front government, it’s a question of political survival (AC V ol 39 No10). For Cairo, it’ s a different kind of survival: Egypt depends on the Nile and the Nile flows northwards from Sudan.
The urgency of Egypt’s need for water rises and falls under local political and economic pressure. Now, a wave of economic optimism has been unleashed: access to foreign investment has grown with deregulation and a post Gulf-war boom. There is money to be spent.
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