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.
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.
In early May, when Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki visited Sudan, the official objective of the trip was to strengthen bilateral ties within a regional framework. The visit nevertheless raised eyebrows. It came on the heels of Eritrea’s military participation in Ethiopia’s civil war in Tigray region, and also at a time of rising tensions between Ethiopia and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and a border dispute involving areas near Tigray, among other issues. Unofficially, local observers have suggested that Eritrea may seek a role in mediating between Ethiopia and Sudan.
Khartoum visit by Eritrean president comes amid strained relations between government of Ethiopia, a close ally, and Sudan.
Isaia’s visit also comes as he faces growing pressure from the international community to withdraw Eritrean troops from Tigray. Soldiers from Eritrea, long an enemy of Tigray’s now-fugitive leaders, have also been blamed for some of the worst human rights abuses in the Tigray conflict, including massacres of civilians and systematic rape.
Leaders agreed on priority of working together to address conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray.
US President Joe Biden and Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of United Arab Emirates discussed a range of issues, including Iran and the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the White House said Tuesday.
Many came with almost nothing. And yet, “I don’t want to think of going back,” said 21-year-old Wegahta Weldie, a student from Mai Kadra, the scene of the six-month-old conflict’s first known massacre.
She recalled stepping on dead bodies there as her family hid in a maize field and then walked hundreds of kilometers (miles) to reach Mekele.
“Many people had been killed and it was very dark,” she said. “I could not tell whether they were my relatives or not.”
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.
With the absence of a political solution for the crisis that erupted from Addis Ababa’s intransigence, and Egypt’s impatience regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a military option is now on the table, according to Cairo.
In the case of that happening, Sudan is set to pay the biggest price. The two combating nations do not share borders, and if the dam is destroyed fully or partially by Egypt, the direction of the flood will move towards Sudanese territories.
Gunmen killed at least 20 people last week in western Ethiopia, a regional government official said on Thursday, in what he and two residents described as an attack on civilians from the Amhara ethnic group.
Fighting continues in Ethiopia, despite Ethiopia’s premier Abiy Ahmed declaring victory over Tigrayan rebels in November 2020. With elections on the horizon, has the war in Tigray done more damage to Ethiopia’s unity?
“There is a full-scale war going on in Tigray. Sudan also invaded some 40 to 50 km (25 – 31 miles) of our border. There is also the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) crisis with Egypt.”
