Egypt rebukes Ethiopia for calling dam an Arab-African fight

Egypt rebuked Ethiopia yesterday for describing their dispute over a Nile dam being built by Addis Ababa as an Arab-African conflict.

The Horn of Africa country had no right to speak for the entire continent, Cairo said.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry also disputed what it called “false claims” by Ethiopia that Cairo and Khartoum had agreed during past negotiations on details of the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

An Arab League summit held in Saudi Arabia last week adopted a resolution supporting Egypt and Sudan in their dispute with Ethiopia over the dam project.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Ethiopia’s assertion that the resolution amounted to an Arab-African dispute was a “desperate attempt to drive a wedge between Arab and African nations”.

Mr Abu Zeid also emphasised Egypt’s role in supporting African liberation movements in the 1950s and 1960s.

He also referred to Cairo’s current offer of technical assistance to nations in the continent. That the African Union is based in Addis Ababa, the ministry said, does not give Ethiopia the right to speak for African countries.

It was responding to a statement by Ethiopia on Monday that said Addis Ababa was disappointed by the resolution adopted by the Arab League.

“This resolution is an affront to the African Union and its member states,” Ethiopia said. “It runs contrary to the cherished and shared history of the people of Africa and the Arab world.”

The resolution, the country said, was a “deliberate mischaracterisation” of Ethiopia’s position over the dam.

Egypt is concerned that the dam will reduce its share of the

Nile’s water, a possibility that would badly hurt its agricultural sector and disrupt its delicate food balance.

Both Egypt and Sudan want Ethiopia to enter a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam.

Ethiopia, however, has insisted that set guidelines should suffice.

It has filled the dam three times in as many years without giving Cairo and Khartoum advance warning.

It plans a fourth filling this summer.

The last round of negotiations between the three countries, in 2021 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, collapsed.

The Ethiopian statement accused Egypt of using the Arab League to put pressure on Ethiopia over the Gerd dispute. That, it added, “represents [Egypt’s] lack of good faith”.

Twelve years after construction began, Ethiopian authorities say the dam is more than 90 per cent complete. Once running at full capacity, it will generate 6,500 megawatts of electricity and could give more than half of the country’s population access to power.

Egypt and Sudan reached an agreement in 1958 to allocate the Nile’s water between them.

In 1970, Egypt’s Aswan dam was completed, helping Egyptian farmers to irrigate their land year-round.

But the dispute is about far more than water resources.

“Contestation over the Gerd is not merely about the material aspects of resource security,” Gashaw Ayferam wrote for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank.

“Rather, it is also a conflict between Egypt’s ancient identity centered on the Nile and Ethiopia’s new Nile-centric identity, which is under construction,” he said.

“Negotiation in the context of this identity struggle is a zero-sum game.”