Her Excellency, Ambassador Alemtsehay Meseret, the Ethiopian Ambassador to Uganda has said Addis Ababa trusts Kampala’s commitment to the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA).
The CFA, also known as the Entebbe Agreement, has been signed by six out of the 10 Nile Basin Initiative states. The signatories are Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi.
Ambassador Alemtsehay made the remarks during a press briefing on the situation in Ethiopia on Friday.
The CFA spells out the terms and conditions of how to work together to ensure that all states achieve and sustain water security along the River Nile.
During the briefing held online (zoom), the ambassador addressed issues on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the unilateral ceasefire decision of the government and the recently concluded general election of Ethiopia on July 9, 2021.
“The Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) issue is now irrationally being stretched into the Agenda of third parties and the international community,” Ambassador Alemtsehay said.
She added, “GERD is a flagship development project with extraordinary national significance for the future of its economic and energy security. 65 million Ethiopians, which accounts nearly 60% of the population, have no access to electric power.”
Her comments came a day after Sudan and Egypt caused a UN Security Council debate in the issue.
However, the ambassador said, the move was taking matters too far, arguing that the dam is to mainly develop Ethiopia.
“Attempts made by Sudan and Egypt to take the GERD issue to the UN Peace and Security Council by mobilizing the League of the Arab States would unnecessarily internationalize and securitize the matter,” she said before adding, “However, the GERD is purely a development project and also a source of cooperation to the Nile riparian countries. It is a symbol of equitable and reasonable utilization and common aspirations of the riparian countries to utilize their common resource.”
GERD is a hydropower project launched in 2011 on the Blue Nile—a significant Nile tributary with a project cost of $4.6 billion. The GERD generates 6.4-GW (6450MW) after completion. Last year, in the first filling the Dam’s reservoir retained 4.9 cubic metres of water without “interrupting the continuous flow of water to the lower basin.” The second year filling of this year is anticipated this summer would boost the reservoir’s volume to reach to 18.4 km3 by retaining 13.5 billion cubic metres of water. This enables some of the installed turbines to start operation and generate some power. The construction of the GERD is on progress; now the GERD has reached more than 80% of its total completion. A 650-km transmission line has also been erected.
TIGRAY
On the conflict in Tigray, Ambassador Alemtsehay, said the unilateral ceasefire decision by the Ethiopian government was dor humanitarian reasons.
“This was done deliberately mainly to benefit the whole people in Tigray to access Humanitarian supports and to allow the farmers to use the rainy season, which starts from July to September of the year, to plough their land safely by avoiding sporadic clashes with TPLF,” Ambassador Alemtsehay said.
She also revealed that, “the TPLF group’s being a national threat is neutralised and the group is incapable of fighting the Ethiopian army.”
GENERAL ELECTION
Ethiopia recently held an election in which the prosperity party – led by the Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed won the majority of the vote and was declared a winner of the six term election with a landslide victory.
Ambassador Alemtsehay used the occasion to hit out at international media who she said ‘have consistently been playing a negative role with the regard to their coverage of Ethiopia.
“They have disclosed themselves as biased, one-sided and superficial to African issues. Similarly, they have continued to undermine the credible work of the Election process both the Election Commission and the government. The International Media looks Africa in a very skewed perspective and wanted to portray Africa as a continent filled with chaos, civil war, undemocratic leadership and full of evil,” Ambassador Alemtsehay said.
She advised the media in Africa not to rely on reports by foreign journalists, but seek clarity from embassies on the facts in the ground.
