Borkena
Toronto – Ethiopia’s $5billion dollar worth Mega Dam is completed. It took 14 years to complete – basically due financing challenges. This week reports emerged, including from senior government officials, that as many as 15,000 Ethiopians have been killed in the course of the project’s life.
The statement was initially attributed to Habtamu Ettefa, the Minister for Water and Energy. He remarked about it during an interview with The Reporter. According to a BBC Amharic report, he was asked if 15,000 people were killed after the story was trending on social media. The Minister at the time reportedly responded “yes.” However, he seems to be rescinding it now. BBC Amharic cited him as saying “the question was misinterpreted.”
As well, two security officials who have been part of the project have reportedly dismissed the claim that 15,000 Ethiopians were killed in connection with the construction of the dam. The claim was primarily related to a security incident in and around the location of the GERD construction.
BBC Amharic cited that BBC spoke to the Security and Engineering coordinator of Salini Impregilo , the company that built the dam which has rebranded itself as “We Build” , if 15,000 people were killed during the construction life of the project. The coordinator has dismissed it as false. Engineer Moges Yeshiwas, in charge of the health and safety environment, has worked on the project until May 2025.
Mintesnot Ayele, another Engineer who was working in the same department who had been working on the project for more than 10 years. He confirmed that people died in different ways during the construction project including work related accidents. He also confirmed that members of the defense forces who were escorting construction material to the project have been killed as there was an attack. “Seen from the 15,000 death claim, the number of deaths was very small,” he is quoted as saying. His estimate is that the number may not surpass 100.
The work related accident was mostly related to a traffic accident, according to the source.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been making repeated claims that blood was also part of the cost of building the dam. The Ethiopian government has not yet released an official figure of the number of deaths in connection with the project construction.
However, there had been reports confirming recurring security incidents around the construction site. Many of them were portrayed as the works of foreign powers, presumably Egypt.
The Dam is scheduled to be officially inaugurated on September 9, just two days before the Ethiopian New Year.
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Abiy is a compulsive liar. I don’t think even those around him believe what he says. Individuals who have access to facts should carefully investigate and pass it on to publish the news abroad.
Deaths are inevitable during construction of huge projects like this. 15,000 might be stretching the real count but deaths are not always unavoidable. We have seen documentaries of dam constructions in the West and Asia that tell the deaths of construction of workers and even surveyors due to a variety of reasons including from natural causes such as heart attacks. They should always be remembered and their names must be etched in stone at the site. Let’s not engage ourselves in cheap shot arguments over the number. One person lost is one person lost too many.