Ethiopia has stated Egypt “should abandon its aggressive method” in direction of a controversial hydroelectric dam on the River Nile as tensions between the 2 international locations proceed to escalate.
Addis Ababa was responding to a letter Egypt despatched to the UN Safety Council final week accusing Ethiopia of violating worldwide regulation by persevering with to fill the dam with out settlement from downstream international locations.
In its letter to the Safety Council, Ethiopia rejected what it known as “a litany of unfounded allegations” from Cairo.
This newest spherical in a long-running dispute comes as Egypt forges nearer army ties with Ethiopia’s neighbour Somalia, which has its personal disagreement with Ethiopia.
The row dates again to 2011 when Ethiopia started constructing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) on the Blue Nile, a tributary from the place 85% of the Nile’s waters circulate.
Egypt sees this as an existential situation because it depends nearly solely on the river for its water and fears that the dam might imply that the circulate of the river is disrupted. It additionally says that two colonial-era treaties assure that it has a proper to veto upstream initiatives.
However for Ethiopia, the large venture, set to be the biggest hydroelectric plant in Africa, is an integral a part of its efforts to develop the nation and get electrical energy to tens of millions of households.
The dam is nearing its completion, with the reservoir filling with water since 2020, and has already began producing energy.
Egypt, together with Sudan – by which the Nile additionally flows, have been elevating considerations that their important water provides could be beneath menace, particularly if there are successive years of drought.
A number of diplomatic efforts to achieve a binding deal haven’t succeeded.
The latest efforts resulted in December final 12 months with each international locations accusing the opposite of intransigence.
In its letter to the Safety Council, Ethiopia stated Egypt was “solely fascinated about perpetuating its self-claimed monopoly” over the river.
In latest weeks, tensions throughout the Horn of Africa have grown, particularly after a army pact was agreed between Egypt and Ethiopia’s jap neighbour Somalia.
Relations between Mogadishu and Addis Ababa deteriorated after landlocked Ethiopia signed a deal in January with the self-declared Republic of Somaliland over entry to the ocean and doable use of the shoreline for a naval base.
Somalia sees Somaliland as a part of its territory and said the agreement was an act of aggression.
This weekend, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed warned against attacks on his country, saying anybody from “afar and close by” daring to invade the nation could be repelled.
He didn’t specify which nation he was speaking about.
