Sisi: Egypt Will Not Allow Any Infringement on Somalia’s Sovereignty
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud at the Ittihadiya Palace on Sunday to discuss regional and international developments affecting the two countries.
The two presidents discussed Arab and Egyptian moves to confront the Ethiopian plan to establish a sea outlet and a naval military force on the Red Sea, which threatens both countries.
Ethiopia had announced on 1 January the signing of an agreement it described as historic with the region of Somaliland, giving it a sea outlet through the Somali port of Berbera along 20 km on the Red Sea for 50 years. In return, Ethiopia recognises the Republic of Somaliland as a state independent of Somalia, and Somaliland also gets a stake in the state-owned Ethiopian Airlines. Under the agreement, Addis Ababa got the chance to reach the sea, after having been landlocked since Eritrea’s official separation from it in the 1990s.
The Somali government responded in a statement that “Somaliland is part of Somalia under the Somali constitution, and therefore Somalia considers this measure a flagrant violation of its sovereignty and unity, and has asked the United Nations and the African Union to work together to confront this aggression by Ethiopia and the interference in Somali sovereignty”. The Somali government recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia for consultations.
This is not the first time part of Somalia has been declared independent from it: in the past, the area that fell under French occupation was part of historic Somali land and is now known as the state of Djibouti. Somaliland is also Somali land that was under British occupation and declared its independence unilaterally without local or international recognition. Ethiopia has occupied the Somali region of Ogaden for years, while Kenya occupies the “NFD” region in the south-west of Somalia, which means Somalia has broken up into occupied parts, with only the Puntland region and the central and southern Somalia region left to it.
Commenting, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said at a joint press conference with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud at the Ittihadiya Palace in eastern Cairo on Sunday that “Egypt supports Somalia and rejects interference in its affairs and infringement on its sovereignty”, stressing that “the agreement between Somaliland and Ethiopia is unacceptable to anyone, and that his country will not allow anyone to threaten or harm its brothers, especially if they ask it to intervene”.
Electricity Ministry Owes USD 300 Million to Maintenance Companies
The Ministry of Electricity’s debts to companies maintaining power stations, including “Siemens” and “General Electric”, exceeded about USD 300 million as of last July. The ministry says that freezing the consumption tariff in the past period and the gap between the production price and the selling price to consumers caused the ministry’s delay in paying those debts.
On the other hand, Counsellor Mohamed El-Homsany, the cabinet spokesperson, stressed that the economic reform programme saw the need to phase out electricity subsidies gradually, pointing out that subsidies are being reduced gradually, taking into account the state’s economic indicators, over the next 5 years, and stressing that the state “always sides with people on limited incomes and will not abandon them”.
Egypt-Somalia Trade Rises to About USD 56 Million
The Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics announced on Sunday that the value of trade between Egypt and Somalia rose by 26.5% in the first 11 months of 2023 to USD 56.3 million, compared with USD 44.5 million in the same period of 2022.
The value of Egyptian exports to Somalia during that period reached USD 54 million, compared with USD 42.3 million in the same period of 2022, an increase of 27.7%. Egyptian imports from Somalia in 2022 and 2023 amounted to USD 2.2 million in each year. Somali investments in Egypt amounted to USD 154,000 in the 2021/2022 fiscal year.
Remittances from Egyptians working in Somalia amounted to USD 328,000 in the 2021/2022 fiscal year, compared with USD 397,000 in the 2020/2021 fiscal year, a decrease of 17.4%. Remittances from Somalis working in Egypt amounted to USD 27,000 in the 2021/2022 fiscal year (their number, according to CAPMAS’s 2022 estimates, is about 1,200 Egyptians), compared with USD 120,000 in the 2020/2021 fiscal year, a decrease of 77.5%.
Supply Ministry: Sugar Sells at EGP 27 a Kilo in Markets
Dr Ahmed Kamal, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of Supply, revealed in press statements today that the ministry received a report on sugar cane supply and output, explaining that cane supplies reached 928,035 tonnes of sugar cane and that the output from that quantity reached 88,055.
He added that the seven factories are expected to receive up to 7 million tonnes to produce 700,000 tonnes of sugar, stressing that a single tonne of sugar cane produces only up to 100 kilos of sugar after pressing.
The minister’s assistant for projects and media explained that the sugar produced is pumped into the markets to be sold at EGP 27 a kilo, or to supply outlets to be dispensed to citizens on subsidy cards at 12.60 a kilo.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the European Union Discuss Developments in the Gaza War
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held a bilateral meeting today with Janez Lenarčič, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, on the sidelines of the foreign minister’s participation in the tenth meeting of the Egypt-EU Association Council. The meeting addressed the humanitarian and security aspects of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the war of extermination it is witnessing.
The meeting discussed joint courses of action between Egypt and the European Union towards what is happening and how to increase the volume of humanitarian aid provided to the Strip. Shoukry said “the European Union must take a pressing position towards a comprehensive ceasefire, as the only effective path”, rejecting any attempts by the Israeli occupation authority to displace Gazans from the besieged Strip.
A New Rise in Steel Prices
Steel prices rose at the start of trading in Egyptian markets and factories on Sunday, coming after the increase as follows:
- Ezz rebar rose in the local market by about EGP 3,800, bringing the price to EGP 48,300 per tonne.
200,000 Tonnes of Vegetables Exported in a Week
The head of the National Food Safety Authority announced that the number of food consignments exported, according to the authority’s General Administration for Exports and Imports, reached 5,500 consignments totalling about 200,000 tonnes for 1,700 exporting companies, ranging across 500 items of fresh vegetables and fruit and various food products, as follows:
- Potatoes topped the list of Egyptian vegetables exported, at 12,000 tonnes.
- Various frozen vegetables totalling 11,000 tonnes.
- Beans totalling 10,000 tonnes.
- Citrus topped the list of fruit exported last week, totalling 65,000 tonnes.
- Strawberries totalling 8,000 tonnes, then bananas totalling 4,000 tonnes.
Saudi Arabia, Libya, Russia and the UAE were the largest recipients of Egyptian exports last week, out of a total of 150 importing countries.
Arabs and Foreigners Account for 9.3% of Share Trading on the Egyptian Exchange
The Egyptian Exchange recorded net buying by foreign investors of EGP 999.4 million during last week’s trading, while Arab investors recorded net buying of EGP 148.5 million, excluding deals. The Egyptian Exchange made gains of EGP 106 billion during last week’s trading.
The market capitalisation of the exchange’s indices opened the week at EGP 1.780 trillion, compared with a close of EGP 1.886 trillion, a rise of 6%.
Total trading during the week amounted to EGP 288 billion, with a trading volume of 8,617 million securities executed in 910,000 transactions, compared with total trading of about EGP 321.2 billion with a trading volume of about 5,267 million securities executed. The value of trading in bonds and treasury bills accounted for 90% during the week.
Egyptians accounted for 90.7% of total trading in listed shares, while foreigners accounted for 3.3% and Arabs for 6%, excluding deals.
Haaretz: Netanyahu Has Failed in the War on Gaza
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted a source in the security cabinet as saying the war on the Gaza Strip has no future, and that Netanyahu is stalling to buy time and is “evading responsibility”. According to military officials, the performance of Netanyahu and his government is marked by failure in managing the war on Gaza.
An Israeli Decision Not to Transfer Any Funds to Gaza
The Israeli occupation’s cabinet approved a plan to transfer the Palestinian tax revenues it is withholding to Norway, with a US guarantee. Under the plan, the Norwegian government will act as a conveyor of the funds, sending them only to the Ramallah government to run its affairs, and the funds will not reach Gaza. Tax revenues represent about 65% of the Palestinian Authority’s budget, about USD 200 million.
The UN: 1,018 Cholera Cases Recorded in Yemen
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs revealed the recording of more than 1,018 new cases linked to the cholera outbreak, including 6 deaths, in 9 Yemeni governorates, between 16 October and 31 December last year.
In a report on the humanitarian situation in Yemen for the last quarter of 2023, it explained that Yemeni children under the age of five account for nearly a third of cases, and the number is likely much higher because of underreporting in various areas, especially in the northern part of the country.
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, had earlier revealed that more than 4,000 people in Yemen were infected with cholera and polio in the first half of last year.
South Sudan Calls on Hemedti to Open Humanitarian Corridors Amid the War
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir called on the commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), to open humanitarian corridors immediately to provide basic services to the Sudanese people.
During his meeting with Hemedti in Uganda, Kiir urged an immediate cessation of hostilities between the two warring parties in Sudan, stressing South Sudan’s commitment to supporting the peace process.
A UN report said on Friday that between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in a single city in the West Darfur region of Sudan last year in ethnic violence carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied Arab militias.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Al-Sadiq met Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber in Uganda on Saturday, on the sidelines of their participation in the Non-Aligned Movement summit hosted by Kampala. A Sudanese statement on the meeting said the two officials discussed restoring bilateral relations between the two countries and speeding up steps to reopen their embassies. Sudan cut ties with Iran in 2016, and the head of the Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok had refused to restore relations since then because they had begun building relations with the Israeli occupation authority, which is hostile to Iran; but the recent war has shown that Sudan is now seeking to restore them, hoping that Tehran will support the Sudanese army with the weapons and equipment needed to confront Hemedti.
