CAIRO: Egyptian armed forces have launched a joint air training exercise, Nile Eagles 2, with the Sudanese air force at Sudan’s Merowe air base.
The training includes elements from the air forces and Thunderbolt commando forces from both countries, Egypt’s military said in a statement.
The early stages of the training included joint sorties, with multi-role fighters attacking targets and protecting vital installations.
Thunderbolt forces on both sides resumed training in attack, concealment and camouflage operations.
Mohammed Othman Al-Hussein, chief of staff of the Sudanese armed forces, inspected the participating troops, listened to a summary of the training stages, and also followed the sorties and air force training.
Al-Hussein praised the “clear harmony” in the performance between the forces.
The exercise aims to achieve the maximum possible benefit in terms of planning and carrying out air operations, the Egyptian armed forces said.
The two armed forces held the Nile Eagles 1 exercise last November, which lasted for about a week.
These exercises come amid growing fears in Cairo and Khartoum concerning the effects of the Renaissance Dam on their share of Nile River water, with negotiations suspended and no solution in sight.
On Tuesday, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said that Egypt will refuse to allow a single drop of its water to be taken.
“No one is untouchable for us,” he said. “Our water is a red line.”
The Egyptian leader was speaking at a press conference held after the huge container ship Ever Given was refloated in the Suez Canal.
The president said: “We choose to negotiate; hostile action is ugly and has effects that extend for many years, and nations do not forget this. But if our water supplies are affected, Egypt’s reaction will reverberate in the region.”
Egypt, Sudan launch joint air exercise as Nile dam tensions mount
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Egypt, Sudan launch joint air exercise as Nile dam tensions mount
- The early stages of the training included joint sorties, with multi-role fighters attacking targets and protecting vital installations
Drone strike kills 10, including 7 children, in Sudan’s El-Obeid: medical source
- An eyewitness said the strike hit a house in the center of the army-controlled capital of North Kordofan
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: A drone strike on the Sudanese city of El-Obeid killed 10 people including seven children on Monday, a medical source told AFP.
An eyewitness said the strike hit a house in the center of the army-controlled capital of North Kordofan, which the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have sought to encircle for months.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the RSF, with some of the worst violence currently unfolding in Sudan’s strategic southern Kordofan region.
El-Obeid, the region’s main city, lies on a key crossroads connecting the capital Khartoum with the vast western Darfur region — where the army lost its last major position in October.
Following its victory in Darfur, the RSF has pushed through Kordofan, seeking to recapture Sudan’s central corridor and tightening its siege with its local allies around several army-held cities.
Hundreds of thousands face mass starvation across the region.
Last year, the army broke a paramilitary siege on El-Obeid, which the RSF has sought to encircle since.
Drone strikes on Sunday caused a power outage in the city but left no reports of casualties.
Last week, a coalition of armed groups allied with the army said they had retaken several towns south of El-Obeid, which according to a military source could “open up the road between El-Obeid and Dilling” — one of South Kordofan’s besieged cities.
Since it began, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 11 million people to flee internally and across borders.
It has also created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises, and been described as a “war of atrocities” by the United Nations.
