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“Ethiopia has no obligation to seek permission from anyone to use natural resources within its own borders,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Borkena
Toronto – Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday issued a statement in response to Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty’s remark that Egypt will not hold “additional discussion” with Ethiopia over the Grand Renaissance Dam.
The statement accused Egypt of orchestrating an escalation. The statement also allege that Egypt has been engaged in activities to destabilize the region.
The Ministry alleged that “Egyptian authorities conduct a campaign of destabilization in the Horn of Africa focused on but not limited to Ethiopia.”
Ethiopia called Egypt’s approach “misguided,” which it says is a “failure of imagination and leadership.”
Egypt has been accusing Ethiopia of taking “unilateral action” over the Nile river. It has been opposing the construction of a dam over the Nile (locally known as Abbay) river as it would pose a “national security risk.”
On the other hand Ethiopia says Egypt is living a “colonial” mindset , and that “Ethiopia has no room to accommodate the vestiges of colonialism that Cairo is finding it difficult to eschew.”
Egypt has been claiming a “historical right over the Nile” – a monopoly over the water. From its side, the terms of reference is a colonial era agreement between Egypt, Sudan and Great Britain.
Ethiopia was not a party to it and no water share was allocated to Ethiopia while it is contributing over 85 percent of the water that is flowing to the lower course of the river (Sudan and Egypt). Ethiopia’s position is that it is not required, in light of international law, to seek anyone’s permission to use its share of the water within its border.
“Egypt’s rejection of dialogue and negotiation has now become overt. In that past Egypt pretended to engage in negotiations while it obstructed progress and solutions through its intransigencies and insistence on its monopolistic claim,” the statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reads.
Ethiopia urged concerned actors to denounce what it called “irresponsible behavior” – its move along the line of escalation.
Ethiopia’s Dam was inaugurated on September 9 this year without “affecting” the water shares of the lower riparian countries.Egypt sees its completion as “unlawful.”
Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan had been holding talks with the aim to negotiate on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project (GERD) for over a decade. It ended without success despite mediation efforts from other actors including the United States. Egypt wants to have a role in the administration of Ethiopian Dam which the latter, rightly, sees as a matter of violation of its sovereignty.
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