President Mohamed Morsy arrived in Uganda Tuesday on a one-day visit to attend the African’s country Jubilee celebrations, MENA reported.
The visit comes as Morsy reshapes diplomatic priorities in Africa, after critics say that the rest of the continent was completely ignored by former President Hosni Mubarak.
This will be Morsy’s second Africa trip. He previously participated in an African summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in July.
Ugandan newspapers have showed interest in marking Morsy’s visit. The Daily Monitor quoted President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda as saying that “Despite the River Nile supporting livelihoods of millions of Egyptians from the ancient times to date, none of the country’s presidents has ever visited Uganda to see the source of this lifeline of their nationals.”
Museveni added, according to the paper, that “I had invited Mubarak to visit the source of the Nile. He said he would come until he would not come. No Egyptian leader from the time of Pharaohs to the current ones has ever visited the source of the Nile.”
Morsy in his visit will hold talks with Museveni along with five other African leaders, including Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia and Michael Sata of Zambia.
Uganda is a major player among Nile Basin countries, which have had uneasy relations with Egypt since they signed an agreement in 2010 that seeks to redistribute Nile water shares while excluding downstream countries such as Egypt and Sudan.
