'It's my dam': Ethiopians unite around Nile River mega-project

Yahoo – AFP, Robbie COREY-BOULET, June 29, 2020

The Blue Nile flowing through the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The project is
passionately supported by the Ethiopian public despite the tensions it has stoked
with Egypt and Sudan downstream (AFP Photo/EDUARDO SOTERAS)

Addis Ababa (AFP) - Last week, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's press secretary took a break from official statements to post something different to her Twitter feed: a 37-line poem defending her country's massive dam on the Blue Nile River.

"My mothers seek respite/From years of abject poverty/Their sons a bright future/And the right to pursue prosperity," Billene Seyoum wrote in her poem, entitled "Ethiopia Speaks".

As the lines indicate, Ethiopia sees the $4.6 billion (four-billion-euro) Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as crucial for its electrification and development.

But the project, set to become Africa's largest hydroelectric installation, has sparked an intensifying row with downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan, which worry that it will restrict vital water supplies.

Addis Ababa plans to start filling next month, despite demands from Cairo and Khartoum for a deal on the dam's operations to avoid depletion of the Nile.

The African Union is assuming a leading role in talks to resolve outstanding legal and technical issues, and the UN Security Council could take up the issue Monday.

With global attention to the dam on the rise, its defenders are finding creative ways to show support -- in verse, in Billene's case, through other art forms and, most commonly, in social media posts demanding the government finish construction.

To some observers, the dam offers a rare point of unity in an ethnically-diverse country undergoing a fraught democratic transition and awaiting elections delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Abebe Yirga, a university lecturer and expert in water management, compared the effort to finish the dam to Ethiopia's fight against Italian would-be colonisers in the late 19th century.

"During that time, Ethiopians irrespective of religion and different backgrounds came together to fight against the colonial power," he said.

"Now, in the 21st century, the dam is reuniting Ethiopians who have been politically and ethnically divided."

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (AFP Photo)

Hashtag activism

Ethiopia broke ground on the dam in 2011 under then-Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who pitched it as a catalyst for poverty eradication.

Civil servants contributed one month's salary towards the project that year, and the government has since issued dam bonds targeting Ethiopians at home and abroad.

Nearly a decade later, the dam remains a source of hope for a country where more than half the population of 110 million lives without electricity.

With Meles dead nearly eight years, perhaps the most prominent face of the project these days is water minister Seleshi Bekele, a former academic whose publications include articles with titles like "Estimation of flow in ungauged catchments by coupling a hydrological model and neural networks: Case study".

As a government minister, though, Seleshi has demonstrated an ear for the catchy soundbite.

At a January press conference in Addis Ababa, he fielded a question from a journalist wondering whether countries besides Ethiopia might play a role in operating the dam.

With an amused expression on his face, Seleshi looked the journalist dead in the eye and responded simply, "It's my dam."

In those five seconds, a hashtag was born.

Coverage of the exchange went viral, and today a Twitter search for #ItsMyDam turns up seemingly endless posts hailing the project.

At recent events officials have even distributed T-shirts bearing the slogan to Ethiopian journalists, who proudly wear them around town.

The dam's wall is 145 metres (475 feet) high. Filling the lake that will form behind it 

will probably take years (AFP Photo/EDUARDO SOTERAS)

Banana boosterism

Some non-Ethiopians have also gotten in on #ItsMyDam fever.

Anna Chojnicka spent four years living in Ethiopia working for an organisation supporting social entrepreneurs, though she recently moved to London.

In March, holed up with suspected COVID-19, she began using a comb and thread-cutter to imprint designs on bananas.

Her #BananaOfTheDay series has included bruises portraying the London skyline, iconic scenes from Disney movies and the late singer Amy Winehouse.

But by far the most popular are her bananas related to the dam, the first of which she posted last week showing water rushing through the concrete colossus.

On Thursday she posted a banana featuring a woman carrying firewood, noting that once the dam starts operating "fewer women will need to collect firewood for fuel".

The image was quickly picked up by an Ethiopian television station.

"Maybe the fact that I'm international, and not Ethiopian, but I'm sort of showing solidarity is meaningful," Chojnicka told AFP when asked why she thought the dam posts were so well-received.

"It shows that this is something that's not only seen as valuable by Ethiopians, but the value is also something that an international person can see."

Political pressure

Big hydro projects have in many parts of the world fallen out of favour in the face of their environmental impact and outsized cost compared with wind and solar.

In Ethiopia, though, fervour for the GERD has eclipsed such doubts, and stoked pressure on Abiy to start filling it next month regardless of what happens in upcoming talks.

Failure to do so would prompt a backlash that would be "catastrophic for the prime minister and his government", said Jawar Mohammed, a leading opposition politician.

Abiy has so far shown no sign of retreating from the timeline.

In October, the same month he won the Nobel Peace Prize, he went so far as to assure lawmakers that "millions" of troops could be mobilised to defend the dam if necessary.

Billene, his press secretary, used similarly direct language in her poem extolling the dam's virtues.

"When I say 'it's my dam'," she wrote, "I damn well mean it too."

Arab leaders condemn US Golan decision at summit

Yahoo – AFP, March 31, 2019

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani (2L) left the 30th Arab League summit
shortly after it began Sunday, state media said, without explaning why (AFP
Photo/FETHI BELAID)

Tunis (AFP) - Arab leaders slammed the US decision to recognise the Golan Heights as Israeli territory at a summit in Tunis on Sunday, but struggled for further unity as Qatar's emir left the meeting early.

In a final declaration the Arab League summit said it "affirmed that the Golan is occupied Syrian territory according to international law, the decisions of the United Nations and the Security Council".

A separate statement dedicated solely to the issue called Washington's move "invalid and illegitimate".

"It is true that America is the strongest military force in the world, but its decision is absolutely worthless," League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit told a closing news conference.

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Monday in which the United States recognised Israel's annexation of the strategic plateau that it seized in 1967 and annexed in 1981.

Israel's move has not been recognised internationally, and three UN Security Council resolutions have called for it to withdraw from the territory.

Trump's shift on Golan had already drawn a string of angry reactions from Arab capitals, despite proving problematic for key regional US allies such as Saudi Arabia.

The decision has also drawn criticism from other Security Council members and been rejected by the European Union.

The united front shown at the Tunis summit on the issue failed to mask other deep divisions inside the Arab League, as it struggles with major headaches such as a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf and conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

In an apparent sign of the tensions, Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani quit the gathering "after attending the opening ceremony", the Gulf state's official QNA news agency reported, without giving any further details.

A Tunisian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Qatari leader had walked out during the speech of League chief Aboul Gheit, and "has left Tunisia".

Qatar is at the centre of a bitter Gulf standoff since June 2017, when Saudi Arabia along with the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain severed ties with Doha.

The Saudi-led bloc accuses Doha of supporting extremist groups and being too close to Iran, charges Qatar denies.

The meeting in Tunis had brought together Saudi King Salman and the emir for a rare encounter.

But an appeal by Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi for the region to "overcome its differences" appeared to have little impact as the Qatari ruler left prematurely.

In his opening speech Aboul Gheit had blasted Turkey and Iran for their "interference" in Arab countries, insisting that Tehran and Ankara had worsened regional crises.

Related Article:

Arab leaders slam Trump's recognition of Golan Heights as Israeli

UN lifts sanctions on Eritrea

Yahoo – AFP, Carole LANDRY, November 14, 2018

Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki (L), Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (C)
and Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed met in northern Ethiopia to
push for regional economic development (AFP Photo/EDUARDO SOTERAS)

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Wednesday lifted sanctions on Eritrea following a landmark peace deal with Ethiopia and a thaw with Djibouti that have buoyed hopes for positive change in the Horn of Africa.

The council unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution lifting the arms embargo, all travel bans, asset freezes and targeted sanctions against Eritrea.

Eritrea and Ethiopia hailed the decision as a boost for regional stability, four months after the two countries signed a peace deal that ended two decades of hostility and led to friendlier relations with Djibouti.

Addressing the council after the vote, Eritrea's Charge D'affaires Amanuel Giorgio said his government had long considered the sanctions "unwarranted" and declared: "the long overdue call for justice is finally answered."

Eritrea "is determined to redouble its own efforts and work closely with its neighbors to build a region at peace with itself," said Giorgio.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement that "the lifting of sanctions will have far-reaching effects in improving the stability of the Horn of Africa" and normalizing relations.

The council slapped sanctions on Eritrea in 2009 for its alleged support of Al-Shabaab insurgents in Somalia, a claim Asmara has long denied.

The resolution acknowledged that UN monitors have "not found conclusive evidence that Eritrea supports Al-Shabaab" and declared that the sanctions and arms embargo ended with the adoption of the measure.

"The current developments will have, definitely, ripple effects in terms of economic progress, prosperity as well as human rights," Ethiopian Ambassador Taye Atske Selassie told reporters.

UN officials have reported serious abuses by the Eritrean government that have triggered a major exodus of Eritreans from their country.

UN keeps eye on Djibouti

Ethiopia and Somalia strongly supported calls to end sanctions, and negotiations over the past two weeks focused on addressing concerns about Djibouti.

The resolution calls on Eritrea and Djibouti to press on with efforts to settle a 2008 border dispute and asks Asmara to release information concerning Djiboutian soldiers missing in clashes a decade ago.

At France's request, the council will hear a report every six months on Eritrea's efforts to normalize relations with Djibouti, where France, the United States and China all have military bases.

Djibouti is asking the United Nations to help broker a final settlement with Eritrea to agree on land and maritime boundaries and resolve a dispute over the Doumeira Island, Ambassador Mohamed Siad Doualeh told the council.

The fate of 13 remaining Djiboutian prisoners in Eritrean custody must be addressed, he added.

Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, and war broke out later that decade over a border dispute.

A 2002 UN-backed boundary demarcation was meant to settle the dispute for good, but Ethiopia refused to abide by it.

A turnaround began in June when Ethiopia announced it would hand back to Eritrea disputed areas including the flashpoint town of Badme, where the first shots of the border war were fired.