South Sudan, Egypt sign military cooperation agreement

The militaries of South Sudan and Egypt have signed cooperation agreement that will see both sides share knowledge and experiences on advancement of their armies.
South Sudan Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs, Gen. Chol Thon Balok  and his Egyptian counterpart Minister of Defense and Military production  General Mohamed Zaki( Photo credit Egyptian Embassy in Juba Facebook page)

 By Benjamin Takpiny

The militaries of South Sudan and Egypt have signed cooperation agreement that will see both sides share knowledge and experiences on advancement of their armies.

The Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs, Gen. Chol Thon Balok and Egypt’s Minister of Defense and Military production  Gen. Mohamed Zak, signed military cooperation agreement in early December 2023 in Cairo.

“The Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs Gen. Chol on his last visit to Egypt which was from the 1st to the 8th of December, 2023, upon an invitation by his counterpart, the Minister of Defense and Military Production of Egypt attended the Egypt Defense Expo 2023 and they benefited a lot, except that they did not make any requests or applications for buying any equipment, simply because we are under arms embargo,” Michael Makuei Lueth, the Information, Communication, Technology and Postal Services  told journalists last week after the weekly cabinet meeting in Juba.

He said the military cooperation agreement was signed between Egypt and South Sudan following the defense expo, adding that South Sudan could not acquire fire arms due to the existing arms embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council since 2018.

Makuei clarified that the Egyptian defense minister was invited to Juba to operationalize the cooperation agreement. 

Egypt has in the past supported the unification of forces in South Sudan by donating uniforms and other military gear.

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