Egypt Defeat and the Curse of the Gold Miners, Refugees, and the Displaced

The Egypt national football team was ousted by the Argentina national football team on July 7th in the 2026 World Cup. I was among those who celebrated Egypt’s defeat. All Sudanese refugees in the neighboring country in the diaspora, as well as internally displaced persons, were happy to the core when the Egyptian football team was defeated. Most of the Sudanese people supported the Argentina national football team and wished them a decisive victory over the Egypt national football team. Many Sudanese people danced and celebrated in the streets to express their happiness and joy over the result. It is the supplications of widows, the tears of the mothers and orphans, the pains of the wounded and disabled, and the cries of children and innocents that converted the Egyptian victory into a defeat in the last minute. The Almighty God is the God of justice.

Sudanese people are good-natured. They respect those who respect them and share mutual, brotherly/sisterly relations and deep respect with their neighbors. What provokes Sudanese anger, irritation, and sentiment is the lip service strategies, hypocrisy, and manipulation policies adopted by the Egyptian regime. Sudanese people hate all Egyptian regimes, not the Egyptian people. Egyptian regimes firmly believe that Sudan is their private garden and strategic depth. They still believe that Sudan is an integral part of Egypt and must be under their control. They also believe it is their absolute right to annex any piece of Sudanese land as their own. This colonial mentality refuses to leave their minds. This is clearly manifested in the lopsided 1959 Nile Waters Agreement between Egypt and Sudan, which grants Egypt 55.5 billion cubic meters and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic meters of the Nile’s annual flow. They occupied the Halaib Triangle in 1995, which is still under their control. Recently, they launched aerial military assaults, supported by land tanks, targeting Sudanese citizens mining gold in their own territory. It is also clearly manifested in the heavy Egyptian military support to the Sudanese military establishment. The majority of the military aerial attacks on displaced camps and civilian facilities are conducted by Egyptian.

Have we no right to feel happy when the National Football Team of Egypt is ousted from the competition? Have the Sudanese people no right to celebrate and dance in the streets when they see the Egyptian regime unhappy because their national team has been ousted? Such joy and happiness relieve at least part of our suffering and hardship. This joy and happiness of the Sudanese people, particularly the refugees and displaced, have nothing to do with the Egyptian people. It is the Egyptian regime that we mean to make frustrated and irritated.

Big congratulations to Argentina, and deep sorrow for Egyptian people.

Mahjoub S. G. F.
Kampala, Uganda
July 8, 2026