Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources arrives in Kigali on official visit

CAIRO- 29 January 2026: Hani Sweilem, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, arrived this morning, Thursday, January 29, 2026, in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, on an official visit aimed at strengthening Egyptian–Rwandan cooperation in the field of water resources.

During the visit, Professor Dr. Hani Sweilem is scheduled to hold official talks with Ms. Bernadette Arakwiye, Rwanda’s Minister of Environment, and Mr. Telisfori Dapamini, Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture. Dr. Sweilem and Ms. Arakwiye will also participate in the closing ceremony of the joint steering committee meetings between the two countries. In addition, a number of field visits are planned to proposed project sites in Rwanda.

It is noteworthy that the first meeting of the Joint Steering Committee for the Water Resources and Irrigation Management Project was held in Kigali. The meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Aref Gharib, Head of the Nile Waters Sector, and Dr. Emmanuel Rukunda, Director General of the Rwanda Water Resources Board. The meeting was attended by representatives from both Egypt and Rwanda, along with a number of leaders, experts, and technical specialists from both sides, as well as representatives of the Egyptian Embassy in Kigali. This meeting represents an important initial institutional step toward activating frameworks for joint cooperation and establishing the practical foundations for technical and executive coordination in the coming phase.

The meeting was held within the framework of implementing the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries on September 23, 2025, during the visit of His Excellency the President of Rwanda to Cairo. It aimed to review priority areas of cooperation, discuss the proposed action plan, and identify mechanisms for implementation and follow-up, with the goal of achieving tangible outcomes on the ground, enhancing the exchange of expertise and capacity building, and organizing field visits to a number of sites proposed for implementing the memorandum’s components.