In 2011, Ethiopia started construction on a dam along the Blue Nile River that the government coined the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project, GERD. Projections predict the dam’s cost around $5 billion, which was around 7% of Ethiopia’s GDP in 2016. Egypt and Sudan lodged formal complaints against GERD’s construction due to their concerns about the dam’s impact on the Nile River. The complaints they lodged revolved around two major concerns: the legitimacy of the benefits versus drawbacks outlined by the Ethiopian government and concerns about the dam’s impact on the water supply downriver. Since the benefits of the dam include necessary poverty alleviation, it is important to outline a clear view of GERD’s history, each country’s side and an outside expert’s viewpoint on the project.
Category: Economic Impact
Ethiopia’s Problems Stem From Internal Colonialism
The reality is that the Ethiopian state is unraveling, with the TPLF defeating Ethiopian and Eritrean forces in Tigray and the Oromo Liberation Army making significant inroads on the battlefield in Oromia, the largest state in the country. Indeed, as I have written elsewhere, Ethiopia will perish ingloriously if it fails to accommodate the legitimate demands of the federalist camp.
THE NORTH AFRICA POST: Egypt irked by Ethiopia’s announcement of 100 new dams’ construction
Egyptian officials and media have reacted angrily after Ethiopia announced Sunday it will build next year more than 100 dams aside the current disputed Nile River hydro dam, Anadolu news agency reports.
Ethiopian Premier Abiy Ahmed Sunday indicated that his country will build during the next fiscal year at least 100 medium and small dams to spur development.
Bloomberg: U.S., Europe Urge Cease-Fire to Avert Famine in Ethiopian Region
An Ethiopian national working for an Italian charity was killed in the war-hit Tigray region on Saturday after he was “hit by a stray bullet”, according to his employer.
Negasi Kidane, from the Tigrayan city of Adigrat, had been employed by the International Committee for the Development of Peoples since 2016. The group is known by its Italian initials, CISP.
He is the ninth aid worker reported killed in Tigray since fighting broke out there nearly seven months ago.
US envoy in Egypt for talks on Ethiopia’s dam dispute
The U.S. envoy for the Horn of Africa on Wednesday met with the Egyptian president as part of Washington’s new push to find a resolution to a regional decade-long dispute over Ethiopia’s massive dam on the Nile River’s main tributary.
Jeffrey Feltman arrived in Cairo on Tuesday on the first leg of a tour that includes stops in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan amid growing concerns the dispute could escalate into a military conflict, threatening the entire region.
Troubles pile up ahead of Ethiopia’s first polls under Abiy
Ethiopia is set to hold elections in a month, but with war in the north, ethnic violence elsewhere and major logistical hurdles, the path to credible polls is littered with obstacles.
A six-month-old war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region is the most high-profile of several security crises that will make voting impossible in large swathes of the country.
EU Scraps Plan to Observe Ethiopia Election
the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a statement that the 27-nation bloc would also not monitor preparations for the June 5 election including voter registration.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his Prosperity Party face challenges from increasingly strident ethnically-based parties seeking more power for their regions.
Ethiopia’s COVID-19 cases pass 258,000
Ethiopia registered 322 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 258,384 as of Sunday evening, the country’s Ministry of Health said.
Meanwhile, 17 new deaths from COVID-19 were reported during the same period, bringing the national death toll to 3,726, the ministry said.
Sudan is ready to sue Ethiopia’s government due to GERD threats: Irrigation Minister
Sudan’s Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said that Khartoum will bear great losses if Ethiopia insists on conducting the second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam [GERD] without reaching an agreement.
Abbas said in a press conference that his country will store a billion cubic meters of water behind Roseires Dam as a precautionary measure against the second filling of GERD, planned in the next rain season in June.
Pandemic and war hit tourism in Lalibela, holy Ethiopian site
As they have done for hundreds of years on the Orthodox Easter weekend, priests wrapped in traditional white robes read the Bible by candlelight on Saturday evening in the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela in northern Ethiopia.