Egypt and Somalia to hold military drills in show of force

Exercises to come after Cairo sent troops and arms to Horn of Africa nation last week

Somali government soldiers take part in a military exercise at a temporary camp in Dusamareeb, as they prepare for an offensive against Al Shabab militants. Reuters

Egypt and Somalia are to hold joint military exercises in the Horn of Africa nation, in what appears to be a show of force that could increase tension between the two Arab League members and Ethiopia, security officials told The National on Monday.

The war games, which are expected to be held this month, will involve ground, air, and naval forces, regional security sources close to Cairo said. They declined to disclose the start date, duration or the number of troops to be involved.

"The drills will send a clear and loud message about our firm commitment to co-operate and protect Somalia," one of the officials said. "They'll mean much more than just war drills."

News of the joint war games broke only a day after Egypt said it had written to the UN Security Council to protest against what it regarded as Ethiopia's unilateral policies over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Cairo rejects Ethiopia's plan to move ahead with completing construction of the dam and filling its reservoir without consulting downstream nation Egypt, the letter written by Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Atty said. Those policies threaten regional stability, it added.

Egypt and Ethiopia have been at loggerheads for more than a decade over the construction of the massive Nile dam, which Cairo says will reduce its vital share of the river's waters.

“Egypt has negotiated in good faith [with Ethiopia] for 13 years. The negotiations have been halted after it became clear to everyone that Addis Ababa wanted them to continue indefinitely as a cover while it created a de facto situation on the ground,” the letter said.

It does not add anything new to the long-standing Egyptian position on Ethiopia's handling of the dispute over the dam. But it took on added significance because it came amid rising tension between the two nations.

News of the military drills came less than a week after Egypt began sending troops, arms and military hardware to Somalia under the provisions of a military co-operation agreement signed last month.

Ethiopia was deeply angered by the move that it said would destabilise the Horn of Africa region and take it into “uncharted waters”.

Part of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in Guba, Ethiopia. AFP

Egypt and Somalia have forged closer relations since landlocked Ethiopia signed a preliminary deal with the breakaway region of Somaliland this year to lease coastal land in exchange for possible recognition of its independence from Somalia.

Somalia called the Ethiopia-Somaliland deal an assault on its sovereignty and said it would block it by all means necessary. It has also threatened to send home an estimated 10,000 Ethiopian troops who are in Somalia as part of a peacekeeping mission to fight Al Shabab militants, if the deal is not cancelled.

Egypt said it plannedto apply to the African Union to be part of a new peacekeeping force in Somalia. However, it is not clear whether the Egyptian troops already on the ground in Somalia will serve as the nucleus of its peacekeeping contingent. Media reports in Egypt have spoken of plans to deploy as many as 10,000 troops in Somalia.

There has been no official announcement in Cairo on the deployment and the sending of arms to Somalia. But the security officials explained that besides bolstering Somali defences, the troops would train Somali forces and help protect state installations and key political figures.

The deployment of Egyptian troops in Somalia would place them near Ethiopia's peacekeepers in the country and across the border in Ethiopia itself, raising the spectre of clashes between the two.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has repeatedly said the impact of the dam on his country amounts to an existential threat that cannot be ignored. Talks between the two countries have failed to reach a diplomatic solution.

Boys escape the heatwave by cooling off in the Nile, on the outskirts of Cairo. Mahmoud Nasr / The National

A possible outbreak of hostilities between Egypt and Ethiopia would further destabilise the Horn of Africa, as well as the larger East Africa region, already shaken by a 16-month civil war in Sudan that has created a severed displacement crisis, with two million of the 10 million displaced having fled to neighbouring nations.

Attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, have contributed to the instability in the region, with world powers vying for a foothold in the strategic stretch of water.

The attacks on shipping have also significantly reduced Egypt's foreign currency revenue from the Suez Canal, which links the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and earns Egypt billions of dollars a year in transit fees.

Egypt, a mainly desert country with a population of 106 million, depends on the Nile for almost all of its freshwater needs. Considered one of the world's driest nations, it claims any reduction in its share of the Nile waters would upset its delicate food balance and wipe out hundreds of thousands of agricultural jobs.

Ethiopia says the dam is essential to the country's development and has repeatedly assured downstream Egypt and Sudan that no harm would come to them from the Ethiopian dam, which is being built on the Blue Nile.

The majority of the river's waters that reach Egypt come from the Blue Nile, which joins the White Nile in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, before flowing north into the deserts of Sudan and Egypt.

“The government of Egypt … stands ready to exercise its right to defend and protect the rights and interests of the Egyptian people, in accordance with the UN Charter,” Egypt told the Security Council in Sunday's letter.