Who Controls The World’s Longest River?

Facing water scarcity. (Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh) Quartz Africa When Ethiopia’s prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn visits Egypt this week to discuss bilateral cooperation in sectors like health, education, and agriculture one contentious issue will stand out: the completion of Africa’s largest dam. It is no secret what Egypt thinks about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the centerpiece…

Death of the Nile

By Peter Schwartzstein BBC The world’s longest river is sick – and getting sicker Booming populations have dirtied and drained it, while climate change threatens to cut its flow. And some fear that competition over its dwindling waters could trigger a regional conflict. The rains The rot starts at the source. For as long as the…

How Egypt Is Slowly Losing Its Hold Over the Nile River?

WPR By Julian Hattem For millennia, the Nile River has served as the backbone of Egypt, the lifeblood of its people. Gradually, though, the land of the pharaohs is losing its grip. Late last month, Uganda hosted the first ever heads-of-state summit aimed at resolving disagreements over the waters of the Nile. But it produced…

Former President Mubarak considered using Tu-160 to destroy Ethiopian dam

Egyptindependent An unverified voice recording attributed to Egypt’s Former President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has generated great controversy among Egyptian social media users. The recording, which surfaced on a Facebook page titled ‘Ana Asef Ya Rais’ [‘I’m sorry Mr. President’], featured statements from Mubarak on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam ‘GERD’. Mubarak relinquished power in 2011 following…

Here is a joke-Arabs helping Ethiopia!

Egypt-Gulf relations tested by Saudi visit to Ethiopia dam A Saudi visit to Ethiopia and a tweet falsely attributed to a Qatari official have harmed relations between Cairo and Gulf monarchies Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir and Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry at a meeting in Jeddah in 2015 (AFP) By MEE staff Egyptian media lashed out…

Why Egypt postponed GERD impact studies contracts signing?

Ahram Online File Photo: A general view shows construction activity on the Grand Renaissance dam in Guba Woreda, Benishangul Gumuz region in this March 16, 2014 (Photo: Reuters) Egypt’s irrigation and water resources minister announced on Sunday the postponing of contract signing with two foreign consultancy firms – to study the impact of Ethiopia’s Grand…

Is Egypt-Sudan border dispute new thorn in Renaissance Dam negotiations?

Author Walaa Hussein, Al-Monitor CAIRO — There are fears that the dispute over Halayeb and Shalateen, a small border region claimed by Cairo and Khartoum, will cast its shadow over Egyptian-Sudanese coordination on the negotiations over the Renaissance Dam between the two countries and Ethiopia. On April 18, state-owned channel Ethiopian TV interviewed Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir,…

Sharing the Nile

The largest hydroelectric project in Africa has so far produced only discord  The Economist WHEN Egyptian politicians discussed sabotaging the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in 2013, they naturally assumed it was a private meeting. But amid all the scheming, and with a big chuckle, Muhammad Morsi, then president, informed his colleagues that their discussion was…