Earlier this week President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi ended a tour that took him to three African states, Angola, Mozambique, and Zambia, where he attended the 22nd Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Heads of State and Governments Summit. It was the first time for an Egyptian president to visit the three countries.

The visit aimed to strengthen political and economic relations with Africa at a time when the continent is facing internal challenges, including conflicts and difficult economic conditions, and external challenges due to global climate change and the war in Ukraine. The visit underlined the importance Egypt places on its relations with southern Africa.

During the tour, President Al-Sisi held meetings with the leaders of Angola, Zambia, and Mozambique, as well as Kenya and Malawi on the sidelines of the COMESA summit.

During his meetings with African leaders, Al-Sisi underlined Egypt’s keenness to boost bilateral cooperation and maximise coordination and consultation on ways to strengthen joint African action mechanisms to achieve growth and stability and face external challenges. African leaders also focused on ways to enhance economic cooperation, trade relations and the exchange of expertise, though the conflict in Sudan often topped the agenda.

Meeting with the President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi, the two leaders agreed to intensify political consultation and coordination on urgent African issues, including developments in conflict hotspots across the continent, and to coordinate their response to the repercussions of global crises impacting African development. Currently, Mozambique is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Ways to resolve the conflict in Sudan were discussed during Al-Sisi’s meeting with Angolan President João Lourenço. Both leaders stressed that African countries want to see a ceasefire in Sudan. Since fighting erupted in Sudan in mid-April, 200,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to Egypt, already home to five million Sudanese refugees.

The issue of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) predictably garnered attention during President Al-Sisi’s tour, with Lourenço agreeing on the need to reach a legally binding agreement between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia in line with international law and taking the interests of each state into account.

Egypt has long highlighted the dangers of GERD and its impacts on Egypt and Sudan in international meetings and forums. Both Khartoum and Cairo have repeatedly voiced concern that Ethiopia’s unilateral filling of the dam in the absence of a legally binding agreement could dangerously affect the flow of water to downstream countries. Negotiations on the dam ended in 2020, and despite mediation efforts by the United States, the UN and African Union, they have yet to resume.

The effects of climate change on the continent were also discussed during the meetings. In October 2022, Egypt announced plans to launch a satellite — in partnership with China — to monitor the impact of climate change on African countries

Africa is estimated to need $3 trillion by 2030 to tackle drought, desertification, and declining agricultural yields. In the last 50 years, drought-related hazards have claimed the lives of over half a million people and led to economic losses of over $70 billion in the region. More than 1,000 flood-related disasters were reported, involving more than 20,000 deaths, in the same period, according to the State of Climate in Africa report issued during COP27.

Security cooperation was an important topic of discussion with Filipe Nyusi, president of Mozambique, who stressed the importance of exchanging information to counter terrorism and extremist thinking in Africa. The same issue was tackled with Lourenço, with whom Al-Sisi discussed ways to coordinate efforts to combat terrorism and extremist ideology in Africa.

The war in Ukraine and its grave impacts on the continent could not be ignored during the tour. Since war broke out in Ukraine in February 2022, African countries have suffered from the shortage and rising price of grains and fuel and the disruption to world trade.

Al-Sisi’s tour came a few weeks after six African countries launched an African initiative to mediate in the Russia-Ukraine crisis in the hope of settling the conflict. Led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the initiative includes Egypt, Comoros, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia.

The COMESA summit in the Zambian capital Lusaka was attended by 21 African leaders and offered an opportunity to discuss economic relations and bolster cooperation among member states. Last year saw trade between Egypt and other COMESA members reach $5.3 billion, a more than 20 per cent increase.

During the summit, the bloc’s rotating chairmanship was handed over from Egypt to Zambia. Egypt had been the chair of COMESA since 2021, during which time it pushed for regional integration through the development of intra-regional trade and the effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 15 June, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly