Abbay Media News
Yassin Ibrahim
Sameh Shoukri, the Foreign Minister of Egypt, is heading to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to talk to his Ethiopian counterpart, Reuters reported. The issue is the age old dispute over the right and share of Nile water each country should have. The question of Nile water has defined Ethio-Egypt relationships for centuries.
Ethiopia complains that Egypt uses its influence in the west, middle east and the United Nations to persuade potential investors and lenders to stay away from Nile related investments. On the other hand Egypt feels it is losing control of the Nile water every time Ethiopia decides to make use of the river. The president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, recently said “no one can touch Egypt’s water” and added its a matter of “life or death”.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project created a fervor among Egyptian politicians and the general public the moment it was announced. Since then Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan has conducted numerous meetings in the three capital cities to reach to some kind of agreement. Ethiopia and Sudan has been asking for equitable share the Nile water but Egypt argues will reduce the quantity it has been getting for centuries.
The most recent agreement regarding the Renaissance Dam was signed in 2015 in Khartoum. The concerned countries agreed for a neutral third party (a French firm) to study the effects of GERD on downstream countries and the environment. The agreement stalled when the parties met in Cairo in November and could not see eye to eye on the presented initial report. The blame for failure to agree flies in both directions with Sudan and Ethiopia blaming Egypt and vice versa.
To restart the negotiations, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri is due to fly to Addis Ababa to sit for another discussion with Ethiopian foreign Ministry. The Foreign Minister of Egypt will arrive in Ethiopia when the Ethiopian government is unstable, weak and divided and the country in turmoil. The ruling coalition EPRDF is split in two camps and members of parliament are boycotting parliamentary sessions with specific demands and opposing the presented Agendas.
