Watch this interview: Dr Amani Al-Tawil on Africa, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt

Watch this interview with Dr Amani Al-Tawil, a renowned Sudanese and African affairs expert, and Dr Rabab Al-Mahdy on the podcast El-Hal Eah? (“What is the Solution?”).

Aired last October, the podcast is produced by Alternative Policy Solutions (APS), a public policy research project at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

The interview is subtitled and dubbed in English.

It is long, substantial and absolutely loaded with insights.

Dr Al-Tawil is an expert on Sudanese affairs and director of the African Programme at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

She is also a member of the Egyptian Council for African Affairs and the board of the Center for Sudanese Studies at the Institute of African Research and Studies at Cairo University.

I won't exaggerate when I say she is one of the few genuine experts on African and Sudanese affairs.

I once read that, in another parallel Egypt, Dr Amani Al-Tawil would be our ambassador to Sudan.

In the interview, Al-Tawil dissects several issues concerning Africa, the situation in Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, the Horn of Africa in general, as well as developments in the Red Sea.

I totally agree that Egypt needs to have a serious and frank conversation with the UAE about its policies in Sudan and Ethiopia.

Al-Tawil stressed that Egypt does not oppose Ethiopia securing commercial access to a Red Sea port through an agreement with a coastal state.

Cairo's objection, she explained, concerns Ethiopia's pursuit of sovereign military access to the Red Sea, which raises questions of territorial sovereignty and international law.

In other words, Ethiopia can negotiate to lease port facilities, operate a commercial terminal or secure access for its trade and shipping.

However, such an arrangement does not give Ethiopia sovereignty over the territory or the automatic right to establish a military base there.

Any foreign military presence would require the consent of the sovereign coastal state concerned.

My personal take is that, before complaining about Egypt's opposition to Ethiopia establishing a sovereign military port on the Red Sea, Addis Ababa would be better off easing tensions with Eritrea and Somalia.

The final part, in which Al-Tawil criticises perceptions of Africa and Africans in Egyptian society and the Egyptian media, is particularly important. In fact, I believe it deserves an entire episode of its own.

I wish her views would also be heard in Ethiopia and Sudan.

One thing is for sure: we have missed having such rich interviews in our media.