Ethiopian army leaders: ready to protect the Renaissance Dam and to respond to any attacks

The Ethiopian Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Adam Mohamed, said that the army is ready to respond to any military attack targeting the Renaissance Dam, and to respond to the source of the attacks similarly.

Adam made the remarks during his visit with a number of senior leaders of the Ethiopian army, the site of the Renaissance Dam in the west of the country.

In turn, Brigadier Yilma Mordesa, commander of the Ethiopian Air Force, confirmed that the army's air sector is ready to thwart any air attacks targeting the dam area.

These statements come in the context of an escalation of official and Ethiopian media, after Addis Ababa withdrew from negotiations with Egypt and Sudan under American sponsorship, confirming its right to the waters of the Nile, and that there is no force that prevents it from exploiting its resources in development, which Cairo rejected and considered it an unjustified escalation.

Media escalation
A few days ago, Ethiopian newspapers attacked Cairo's position on the Renaissance Dam, some of which hinted at the Egyptian regime's intention to plan an "open and blatant" war against Ethiopia with the aim of destroying nearly 70% of the work done to build the Renaissance Dam.

An article in the weekly newspaper, Capital, acknowledged that Ethiopia might seem a lightweight country when compared to Cairo's apparent military superiority thanks to the external support it receives, but Egypt also owns the giant Aswan Dam "and lives in a house of glass."

Egypt does not object to the filling of the reservoirs of the Renaissance Dam, but is opposed to filling it in one go, because it will necessarily reduce its share of water sharply for several years, which directly affects the millions of Egyptians who depend on the Nile water as a main source of drinking and irrigation.

And in an agreement concluded in March 2015 between the leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in its fifth article, it is necessary to agree on the rules for filling and operating the dam before starting filling, in order to prevent any damages to the downstream countries.

One of the most sticking points between the two countries is filling the dam reservoir, which has a capacity of 74 million cubic meters of water. Egypt says that the dam threatens its share of the estimated water by 55.5 billion cubic meters, on which it depends more than 90% in drinking and agriculture.