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Cairo condemns what it calls an “attack on the Egyptian state” and accuses Addis Ababa of using an “aggressive tone”.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry has said it summoned Ethiopia’s top diplomat to Cairo over comments by an Addis Ababa official about a controversial dam on the Nile.
The Egyptian ministry “convened the Ethiopian Chargé d’Affaires in Cairo to explain the comments of the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman regarding Egypt’s internal affairs,” it said late Wednesday.
The statement did not cite specific comments, but instead followed a statement by the Ethiopian official on the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Africa’s largest hydroelectric project, which has raised fears for vital water supplies downstream in Egypt and Sudan.
“They know that GERD will not harm them, it is a deviation from internal problems,” Dina Mufti, a spokeswoman for the Ethiopian ministry and former ambassador to Egypt, said Tuesday.
Mufti argued that without this “distraction,” Egypt and Sudan “would have to deal with many local problems that they hope to explode, especially up there. [in Egypt]”.
In a new statement on Thursday, the Egyptian ministry condemned what it called an “attack on the Egyptian state” and accused Addis Ababa of using an “aggressive tone … to hide Ethiopia’s multiple failures at home and abroad.” .
“It would have been better for the spokesperson to pay attention to the deteriorating situation in his country, which is witnessing multiple conflicts and humanitarian crises that have killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands of innocent civilians,” he said.
On November 4, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered the military to confront the ruling party of the dissident northern region of Tigray, where the fighting is feared to have killed thousands.
Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have been in talks since 2011, but failed to reach an agreement to fill the dam. Negotiations have been stalled since August.
The Nile, the longest river in the world at 6,000 km (3,700 miles), is a lifeline that supplies water and electricity to 10 countries.
Ethiopia views the dam as essential for its growing energy needs and insists that downstream water flow will not be affected.
The dam is at the center of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s largest energy exporter.
The structure is located about 15 km (nine miles) from the Ethiopian border with Sudan on the Blue Nile, a tributary of the Nile River, which provides Egypt’s 100 million people with about 90 percent of their fresh water.
Egypt opposes Ethiopia’s unilateral moves and, together with Sudan, has called for a legally binding political solution to the dispute.
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