CAIRO: US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis arrived in Cairo Thursday on the latest leg of a regional tour, as ties with Egypt continue to warm under President Donald Trump.
After touching down at Cairo airport, Mattis set off to meet President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who was hailed by Trump during a White House visit earlier this month.
Sissi’s visit marked a shift in relations after Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama had given the Egyptian leader the cold shoulder for staging the military overthrow of Islamist president Muhammad Mursi in 2013.
Obama temporarily suspended military aid to Egypt following a bloody crackdown on Mursi’s supporters.
Trump, however, has set aside criticism of Sissi’s human rights record while pledging to maintain support for the key US ally which receives an annual $1.3 billion in military aid.
After meeting Sissi, Mattis is scheduled to hold talks with Defense Minister Sedki Sobhi. He leaves Thursday afternoon to Israel.
No announcement is expected during the Egyptian leg of the tour, which started with a visit to Saudi Arabia.
In Egypt, talks are likely to touch on the military’s counterinsurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, where an Daesh group affiliate has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen.
The Pentagon is also concerned with preventing jihadists from crossing Libya’s porous border with Egypt and the reported presence of Russian troops in Egypt’s western desert, which Cairo has denied.
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US defense secretary arrives in Cairo for Sissi meeting
US defense secretary arrives in Cairo for Sissi meeting
Power outage after drone strikes in Sudan’s El-Obeid
PORT SUDAN: The power supply was cut on Sunday following drone strikes in the Sudanese city of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, the national electricity company said, as fighting raged in the oil-rich southern region.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with Kordofan the latest battleground after the RSF launched an offensive to seize the strategic region.
“El-Obeid power station... was attacked by drones, leading to a fire in the machinery building, which led to a halt in the electricity supply,” the electricity company said.
Army-aligned forces had announced on Wednesday that they had retaken several cities south of El-Obeid from the RSF.
The Joint Forces — an umbrella organization of armed groups fighting alongside the army — said they had “achieved sweeping field victories in the North Kordofan axis.”
In a statement, the group affirmed “progress and control over several strategic areas, key among which are Kazqil, Hamadi, El-Rabash, Habila and El-Dubaibat.”
It said those areas had been “cleared of rebel militia (RSF) elements after inflicting many losses on them in lives and military equipment.”
A source in the Sudanese army told AFP that “this progress will open up the road between El-Obeid and Dilling” — a city in South Kordofan state controlled by the army and besieged by the RSF.
According to a UN-backed report, Dilling is in the throes of famine.
The army source added that government forces in Dalama to the south had cleared a path to Dilling and entered it.
Since mid-December, some 11,000 people have been displaced from North and South Kordofan states, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
Since the start of the war, more than 11 million people have been displaced internally and across Sudan’s borders, many of them seeking shelter in underdeveloped areas with a lack of nutrition, medicine and clean water.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with Kordofan the latest battleground after the RSF launched an offensive to seize the strategic region.
“El-Obeid power station... was attacked by drones, leading to a fire in the machinery building, which led to a halt in the electricity supply,” the electricity company said.
Army-aligned forces had announced on Wednesday that they had retaken several cities south of El-Obeid from the RSF.
The Joint Forces — an umbrella organization of armed groups fighting alongside the army — said they had “achieved sweeping field victories in the North Kordofan axis.”
In a statement, the group affirmed “progress and control over several strategic areas, key among which are Kazqil, Hamadi, El-Rabash, Habila and El-Dubaibat.”
It said those areas had been “cleared of rebel militia (RSF) elements after inflicting many losses on them in lives and military equipment.”
A source in the Sudanese army told AFP that “this progress will open up the road between El-Obeid and Dilling” — a city in South Kordofan state controlled by the army and besieged by the RSF.
According to a UN-backed report, Dilling is in the throes of famine.
The army source added that government forces in Dalama to the south had cleared a path to Dilling and entered it.
Since mid-December, some 11,000 people have been displaced from North and South Kordofan states, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
Since the start of the war, more than 11 million people have been displaced internally and across Sudan’s borders, many of them seeking shelter in underdeveloped areas with a lack of nutrition, medicine and clean water.
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