‘Inaccurate assertions’
First, we would like to express our appreciation for your interest in covering issues unfolding in Ethiopia in your daily English language newspaper, the Arab Times. However, we regret your inaccurate assertion in the Opinion Section of the newspaper under the title “The Abyssinian Nile, Houthi Yemen, Persian Wahrez, Hassan Irlou” published on June 29th, 2021.
In this editorial article, you made recurrent mistakes and forwarded erroneous insights which are totally unrelated based solely on your own faulty judgements and proclivity of distortion towards Ethiopia and its policies.
In fact, it is not the first time that you have shown us vividly your partiality and deliberate ignorance of facts towards Ethiopia, particularly on the Nile issue and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Your favouritism on the issues overweighed the facts and the truth on the ground, which exposes your repeated failure to contribute positively to bridging the gaps among brotherly countries on the utilization of the Nile for the benefit of their people.
First, your argument that Iranian companies are participating in the construction of the GERD is a baseless and unfounded claim. Your insight surely emanated from your personal desire to deliberately create confusion among your readers, international and regional partners.
You should know that the Government and People of Ethiopia are proudly building the GERD with their own money. Ethiopians from all walks of life, at home and in the diaspora, are supporting the dam with dedication in the face of challenges.
Secondly, your assertion that “Ethiopia is working to make Sudan and Egypt thirsty by imprisoning Nile waters” is totally frivolous, beyond the comprehension of a healthy mind and an absurd fallacy, born out of mere appalling fancy which ignores truth and science. How on earth can a country imprison and block a river, the longest in the world, which stretches over thousands of miles with a significant volume of water?
Thirdly, your attempt to portray the GERD as a security threat to Sudan and Egypt and the Arab world in general is totally misleading and unacceptable. The GERD, as a hydro power dam, will not pose any threat; it is rather a means for accelerating regional economic integration with multiple benefits not only for Ethiopia but also to downstream countries as well as the region at large.
As you probably know, Ethiopia contributes 86% of the Nile flow or 77 bcm per year. The country has a population of more than 110 million. And more than 65 million Ethiopians have no access to electricity, where as the country’s energy demand is growing by 20% every year. As a result, almost two thirds of school children in Ethiopia are forced to stay in darkness. And millions of women still forced to travel long distance for fetching water and firewood.
Ethiopia’s endeavours to uplift its people from abrupt poverty by utilizing its own resources including the Abay River without inflicting significant harm to downstream countries should not in any way be taken as a threat for Sudan and Egypt.
In fact, these allegations of yours would not have been given in return to a country and its people who have a strong historical and religious connection with the Arab world, and who served as a haven for the refugees of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) fleeing persecution during the first Hijra. As a Muslim, you could have used your knowledge to tell the truth about how Ethiopia was a place of refuge for the first Muslims.
As a journalist you could also have made many headlines on how hundreds of Syrians who have set up home in Ethiopia, are living in the country with harmony and respect, to the extent that they were invited to share Ramadan lftar with the Prime Minister!
As a writer, you could tell your audience about this good past; as well as Ethiopia’s sincere desire to live with Muslim nations and their people forever in harmony, love, and peace today and in the future as in the past.
As the Nile is a transboundary water resource, Ethiopia passionately believes that its management and utilization should be based on internationally recognized principles of equitable and reasonable utilization, causing no significant harm, and cooperation.
We still call on journalists like yoursel to be impartial, fact based, and focus on the matters that sustain peace and avoid tensions among these countries. Public Diplomacy Department Embassy of Ethiopia Kuwait