CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi started his tour in Africa Aug. 14 and is scheduled to visit four countries, including Chad, Gabon, Rwanda and Tanzania. The visit comes after Cairo failed to persuade the African countries to take a stance against Qatar during the African Summit in Addis Ababa July 4 as part of its efforts to step up its measures against Qatar on the international arena through the United Nations.

Cairo is currently increasing its diplomatic talks in Africa to convince the African states to stand up against Qatar. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with his Algerian counterpart, Abdelkader Messahel, in Cairo Aug. 2, and the two exchanged opinions about the Qatar crisis and discussed the latest developments of the Libyan stalemate. Shoukry then left Cairo on the same day to Khartoum to hold bilateral deliberations with Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour, and the Qatari crisis topped their agenda.

On the sidelines of the African Summit, Shoukry met with several African presidents to persuade them to lean toward Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain by boycotting Qatar. The president of Guinea, Alpha Conde, who is the current head of the African Union, gave the opening speech at the summit in which he called on all African countries to unify their stances on the Gulf crisis and end it peacefully.

Most African countries have strong relations with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, especially Sudan and Eritrea, both of which are part of the Saudi-led coalition against Yemen. The two (Sudan and Eritrea) announced impartiality in the Gulf crisis — a stance that most African states also took. Only a few states like Senegal, Djibouti, Comoros, Mauritania and Gabon backed Saudi Arabia by severing ties with Qatar, withdrawing their ambassadors and reducing diplomatic representation in Qatar.