Al-Sisi Visits Neighboring Sudan

Local Editor

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi landed in neighbor Sudan on Friday for a lightning visit, which an analyst said would attempt to shore up a regional alliance against "terrorism".

The official SUNA news agency said al-Sisi was "on a short visit" for talks with President Omar al-Bashir.
"The two presidents held talks at the Guest House on bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern," SUNA said.

About 300 people protested the visit outside a downtown Khartoum mosque, a witness said.

Al-Sisi arrived a day after he told the African Union summit in Equatorial Guinea the continent must reinforce cooperation to face a "plague" of cross-border terrorist groups.

He took a similar message to Algeria on Wednesday during his first foreign trip since his election in May.
Bashir's 25-year-old regime relies on a base of support which is essentially the same as the Muslim Brotherhood, although it does not use that name.
Sudan has a debt of more than US$40 billion, much of it in arrears, and has been under American sanctions since 1997.

Adding to the country's isolation, diplomatic and other sources said in March that major European and Saudi banks had stopped dealing with Sudan.
The country has been plagued by inflation, a declining currency and lack of reserves since South Sudan separated three years ago with most of Sudan's oil production.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team