This is why Ethiopia’s $4.5 billion dams can result in a ‘war’ with Egypt. (Opinion)

Africa’s history and heritage has over the years been lost to the many invaders who trooped the continent in search of valuables to quench their own insatiable thirst for wealth and power. The visitors did not only leave the continent with unprecedented political unrest and religious indoctrination, they also cultivated a seed of uncultured hunger for fame and power in every individual nation that they carved out of the continent. The African continent therefore had to deal with unimaginable levels of international conflicts between the individual nations.

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia for sometime now has been at loggerheads over the Nile river which serves as the primary source of water for all these countries. The river which covers 3,254,555 square kilometers (about 10% of the size of the African continent) and runs through about eleven countries in the northeastern part of Africa, has caused and continue to cause tensions to rise between this neighbouring countries. The Nile has two major tributaries; the white and the blue Nile. Even though the white Nile is considered to be the primary stream of the Nile river, the blue Nile without any doubt is the source of the most the of the water. The blue Nile contributes about 80% of the water and silt. Despite the modern advancements in technology, the most distant source of the white Nile is still undetermined yet believed to be located in either Rwanda or Burundi it is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa and flows north through Tanzania. The blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast. These two rivers just meet at the north of the Sudanese Capital of Khartoum. The river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta and flows into the Mediterranean sea. Egyptian and Sudanese Kingdoms have lived on this river since the ancient times.

Dispute broke out between Egypt and Ethiopia over the $4.5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This dam which is arguably the largest dam in Africa with a reservoir about the size of London, is almost sparking outrage between the two countries. The likes of Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and most of the countries within the area have complained on many occasions about Egypt's stance on taking the lion’s share of the Nile’s water and other marine resources. The aggrieved countries seek to establish an agreement between themselves to share the Nile and it’s resources. However, Egypt and Sudan vehemently raised opposition when Rwanda, Ethiopia, Entebbe, Tanzania and Uganda signed a new agreement on the 14th may 2010 on sharing the Nile water.

According to a publication by the African mirror magazine on the 16th of August 2020, Pope Francis called for a dialogue between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. He was reported to have urged them not to let a dispute over a dam on the Nile lead to international conflict. According the mirror this are the words of the Pope; “I invited all parties involved to continue on the path of dialogue so that the eternal river will continue to be a source of life, which to be a source of life, which unites and does not divide, which nurtures friendship prosperity and fraternity and not enmity, misunderstanding and conflict”. He reportedly gave the message on the Assumption Day which is an important catholic feast dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Egypt has expressed fears that the dam project could lead to water shortages in the country and has threatened to withdraw from the latest stages of the discussion whiles Sudan is concerned about the safety of the dam. As tensions rise, the Africa Union has been called upon severally to engage all parties in dialogue to avoid an escalation of the matter at hand.