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10:30 a.m. M.
Saturday 24 October 2020
Agencies:
On Saturday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reiterated his guarantee to continue construction of the Renaissance Dam, which he described as “the dam of Ethiopia.” “Ethiopians will inevitably complete this work, and there is no force that can prevent us from achieving the goals we have planned, and no one colonized us before, and no one will rule us in the future,” he said.
“No one can touch Ethiopia and live in peace, and the Ethiopians will win,” the Ethiopian prime minister added in a statement released by Sky News Arabia.
And Abiy Ahmed added: “There are friends who made this story with us, and there are friends who betrayed during our making of this story. This is not new in Ethiopia.”
This comes in Ethiopia’s first official response to US President Donald Trump’s accusation that Ethiopia has violated an agreement that ended the Renaissance dam crisis with Egypt and Sudan.
Trump said Washington has since cut millions of dollars in aid to Addis Ababa due to its delay in the dam negotiations that have been underway for nearly a decade with Egypt and Sudan.
“Egypt cannot be blamed for feeling a bit uncomfortable” because of the dam, which “stops the flow of water to the Nile,” Trump said in a phone call with the leaders of Sudan and Israel to celebrate a diplomatic breakthrough.
The US president described the situation as “very dangerous” and added: “They (the Egyptians) will end up blowing up that dam. They will blow up the dam. We have to do something.”
In turn, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok, following a phone call with Trump following the announcement by Sudan and Israel to normalize relations, highlighted his country’s desire to reach a friendly solution regarding the dam crisis Renaissance.
Egypt confirmed on more than one occasion that Ethiopia had violated its agreements, as well as its evasion and intransigence in order not to reach a solution.
While Addis Ababa says it is not intended to harm Egypt’s interests, and that the purpose of building the dam is primarily to generate electricity.
