BY HAILE DEMEKE
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia has expressed its dismay over the biased stance by the League of Arab States regarding the filling and operation of the Abay Dam. According to the office of the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the government of Ethiopia is dismayed by the “resolution” issued by the League of Arab States on 9 March 2023 regarding the filling and operation of Abay Dam.
“The management and utilization of the Nile River, including the filling and operation of the Abay Dam, must be left to the concerned parties in Africa. We should not have to remind the League that the Nile River and all the riparian countries are found in Africa.” In its statement, the office stated that the league is once again serving as the spokesperson of one state, disregarding basic principles of international law.
“Such attempts to politicize the issue of Abay Dam neither advance friendly relations nor support the efforts to arrive at amicable solutions, as they are not based on facts or supported by law.” Indicating the African Union (AU) role of facilitator in the trilateral negotiations among Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt to resolve the remaining outstanding issues, the office vividly stated that Ethiopia is guided by the maxim, “African Solutions to African Problems.”
Therefore, the league’s characterization of the negotiations is incorrect, it added. The statement further pointed out that Egypt with its obdurate stance to maintain a colonial era-based self-claimed water allocation and its unending attempts to internationalize the matter is the reason for the delay of the negotiation.
It was learnt that the government of Ethiopia has been committed to the AU-led negotiations. The League’s resolutions and statements by Egypt call into question whether Egypt has been engaged in good faith in the negotiations under the AU’s auspices. In the statement, Ethiopia has reaffirmed its resolute commitment to continuing the filling and operate of the Abay Dam in accordance with the Agreement on the Declaration of Principles (DoP) of March 2015 signed between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan, with full respect to the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization of trans-boundary water resources.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 11 MARCH 2023
