Egypt and Sudan Revive 1976 Defence Pact as GERD Dispute Escalates
Egypt and Sudan said on 2 November 2026 that Cairo stands ready to invoke the two countries’ 1976 Joint Defence Agreement to protect Sudan’s sovereignty. In the same joint statement, both governments rejected Ethiopia’s unilateral operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
The statement came after the third round of “2+2” ministerial consultations in Cairo, attended by Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Water Resources Minister Hani Sewilam, and by Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mohi El-Din Salem and Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Ismat Qurashi. Ethiopia did not take part.
Nile water as a shared security issue
Cairo and Khartoum described their water security as inseparable and reaffirmed their rights under the 1959 Nile Waters Agreement, which allocates 55.5 billion cubic metres a year to Egypt and 18.5 billion to Sudan. They called the dam’s operation without a binding mechanism a unilateral act that violates international law.
The text also condemned drone strikes on Sudanese power and water infrastructure, blaming “rebel militias” without naming the country from which the drones were reportedly launched. Egypt’s stated red lines include the partition of Sudan, interference with its resources and “parallel governing bodies”, a phrase widely read as a reference to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The two sides also said Red Sea governance belongs to coastal states and opposed militarisation of the sea.
What the 1976 pact says
Signed on 15 July 1976, the agreement reportedly has eight articles and treats an attack on either country as an attack on both. It created a Joint Defence Council and a joint chiefs of staff structure. Its legal status is disputed: Sudan’s then prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi announced its cancellation on 2 April 1989, apparently without a formal Egyptian reply, while Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, says it is still in force. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan first publicly called for activating its mechanisms on 18 December 2025.
A signal rather than a deployment
No formal activation of the pact or military deployment has been reported, so the statement reads as a declaration of readiness. Its weight lies in tying the Nile dispute directly to a defence commitment. Analysts are divided over whether it marks a shift toward intervention or mainly serves as deterrence aimed at Ethiopia and the RSF. No Ethiopian response to the statement had been reported.
Sudan’s civil war, which began in April 2023 with fighting between the army and the RSF, is now in its fourth year. Khartoum accuses the RSF of drone attacks on infrastructure and accuses Ethiopia of hosting launch sites.
Source: This report is based on Defense and Tech. Read the original: Egypt, Sudan Revive 1976 Defense Pact Amid GERD Dispute