For Donald Trump, Egypt should blow up the Renaissance dam
The Great Renaissance Dam on the Nile in Ethiopia, September 26, 2019. REUTERS / Tiksa Negeri
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3 min
Donald Trump announced with great fanfare the normalization of ties between Israel and Sudan.
The US president took the opportunity to address another issue dear to Sudan and Egypt, the great dam on the Nile that Ethiopia has started to fill without prior agreement from its neighbors and despite threats from Cairo.
Donald Trump went further by ensuring that Egypt had to blow up the dam to maintain control over the Nile.
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With our correspondent in Addis Ababa,
Noé Hochet-Bodin
“
Ethiopia has not honored the agreement.
It's very dangerous.
Egypt must blow up this dam.
I say it loud and clear.
Yes, they must destroy it
”.
The formula is signed Donald Trump.
It is closer to the declaration of war than to a simple suggestion to a strategic ally.
In this case Cairo, which fears for the survival of its economy if the flow of the Nile were to decrease.
The military option is therefore put on the table by Trump, even though Marshal al-Sisi had ruled it out in September, when Ethiopia carried out the first phase of filling the dam.
Negotiations are at a standstill and tensions are high.
The Ethiopian army has closed the airspace in the province of Benishangul-Gumuz.
A preventive measure to ward off any external attack on the barrage of rebirth.
Trump's '
arrogance
' and ignorance
Faced with Trump's remarks, former Ethiopian leader Haile Mariam Dessalegn was the first to react, regretting the lack of awareness and arrogance of the American leader.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed gave him a statement assuring that Ethiopia is working for a "
peaceful settlement
" of the issue "
but that threats against its sovereignty are a violation of international law
".
The country, yet in the grip of an internal crisis, rallied behind the roadblock.
Since October 24, the hashtag #Itsmydam has been flooding Ethiopian social networks, literally meaning “
This is my dam
”.
► To read also: Renaissance Dam: what does Ethiopia want?
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Ethiopia
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Abiy Ahmed
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