Saudi Arabia has announced that it is throwing its weight behind fellow Arab-League nations, Egypt and Sudan in their ongoing dispute with Ethiopia over a massive hydropower dam built by the latter on the Blue Nile, the Nile River’s main tributary.

For almost a decade now, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been the source of diplomatic standoff between Ethiopia and downstream nations Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia is pinning its electricity needs on the project, but the Egyptian government says it’s people rely on the Nile river for almost 90% of their fresh water while the Sudanese also fear the project could restrict their citizens’ water access.

On Tuesday, a day after Ethiopia began filling the dam’s reservoir, Saudi Arabia’s state news agency SPA said the kingdom supported Egypt and Sudan in “preserving their legitimate water rights”, as well as their efforts “to contain this crisis and their demands to solve it in accordance with the rules of international law,” Aljazeera reports.

“The kingdom calls on the international community to intensify efforts to find a clear mechanism to start negotiations between the three countries to get out of this crisis,” it said.

Quick facts about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam GERD

The project broke ground in 2011 and the three countries of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have been locked in inconclusive talks since then.

The dispute centres on the speed at which a planned reservoir is filled behind the dam, the method of its annual replenishment and how much water Ethiopia will release downstream if a multiyear drought occurs. Another point of difference is how the three countries would settle any future disputes.

Egypt and Sudan want a legally binding agreement on the dam’s filling and operation, while Ethiopia insists on guidelines.

Ethiopia says GERD is essential for its economic growth, arguing that the vast majority of its 112 million people population lacks electricity. The dam will generate more than 6,400 megawatts of electricity, a significant boost to the country’s current production of 4,000MW.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country with more than 100 million people, depends on the Nile for almost all of its water needs. It fears that a quick fill would drastically reduce the river’s flow, with potentially severe effects on its agriculture and other sectors.

Sudan wants Ethiopia to coordinate and share data on the dam’s operation to avoid flooding and protect its own power-generating dams on the Blue Nile.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam GERD is estimated to cost about $5 billion, Ethiopia is pinning its economic development on this one project.

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Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was arrested and extradited to Nigeria on Sunday.

The IPOB leader, who was in court facing charges bordering on treasonable felony for his campaign for the secession of Republic of Biafra, jumped bail in 2017 after a military action, code-named “Operation Python Dance”, targeted his family house in Abia state.

Kanu has been living in London since then but Nigerian security officials say that the operation to re-arrest and put him back on trial had been “ongoing for a while” until success was recorded on Sunday, June 27.

Since news of his arrest broke on Tuesday afternoon, some have speculated that he was arrested by British officials where he lives others speculated that he was kidnapped and crated back to Nigeria to face trial.

“He was not arrested in the UK or Brazil or Czech Republic. He was not crated either, contrary to speculations,” a security source told newsmen.

Nigeria’s Minister for justice Abubakar Malami, who broke the news to reporters also failed to mention how exactly the Ipob leader was arrested, simply saying he was “intercepted” and extradited to Nigeria.

However, several reports online have painted a clearer picture of how Kanu was arrested, a report in TheWill said he was intercepted in Ethiopia after Abubakar Malami had written to authorities in that country and sort the assistance of Interpol to facilitate the arrest.

Another report on ThisDay specifically named Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, as the location.

The publication further said Kanu was lured by security operatives with the impression that he was going to be given some “millions of dollars” in cash donations to the cause of his organization.

He was said to have decided to collect the money himself “because of the huge amount involved”.

Kanu even kept his associates in the dark about his mission, according to the security sources who said the top hierarchy did not know his whereabouts on the day he was arrested.

His lifestyles consisted mostly of going out with different women, buying expensive pieces of jewelry, chartering aircraft, and drinks. And because he got many gullible people who were donating to his so-called IPOB, he had so much money to play with such that he even hired lobby groups for his propaganda activities,” the security source told THISDAY.

Nnamdi Kanu has since been remanded to DSS custody where he will remain until his trial resumes on July 26.

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Ethiopians are voting in the first elections since 2015 which will test Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s popularity inside the country.

Ahmed is hoping to win the majority of parliamentary seats in order to maintain his office.

The elections had been earlier postponed in 2020 due to the of coronavirus pandemic.

Ethiopian election 2021: ‘Elections in Ethiopia’ important things to know

Voting is happening across much of the country’s regional and federal, excluding Tigray.

The Somali-speaking regions and some others are not voting too due to insecurity.

Reports say nearly one fifth of the constituencies are not taking part because of insecurity and irregularities.

They include the whole of the Tigray region, where a civil war broke out in November, leading to a humanitarian crisis.

WIA DIS FOTO COME FROM,AFP

Ethiopian election 2021 background:

More than 37 million people are registered to vote, officials say.

The last election in Ethiopia took place in 2015 but not until 2018 before Mr Ahmed took office as Prime Minister.

In 2018, he emerged as the nominee from the then coalition of parties so he never faced any election.

Abiy Ahmed is looking to win the majority for the 547 parliamentary seats.

However, 102 will be uncontested in the June election, including all the 38 seats from the embattled Tigray region.

A former political prisoner who was exiled in the US, Birtukan Mideksa is overseeing Ethiopia’s first parliamentary election.

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Ethiopia has expelled a foreign correspondent working for The New York Times after earlier revoking his license over “unbalanced” reporting, a government official confirmed Friday.

The decision to kick out Simon Marks, an Irish journalist living in Ethiopia, drew swift condemnation from Reporters Without Borders, which said it was “the first time that a foreign journalist is expelled from the country” under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

In a story on Marks’ expulsion, The New York Times said Ethiopian officials summoned him to a meeting Thursday and held him at the airport for eight hours before putting him on a flight after midnight Friday.

“It is alarming that the government of Ethiopia treated the journalist, Simon Marks, like a criminal, expelling him from the country without even letting him go home to get a change of clothing or his passport,” the US-based paper quoted Michael Slackman, its assistant managing editor for international, as saying.

The Ethiopian govt on Thursday expelled me after nearly two years in the country where I reported on the dizzying hopes from the moment @AbiyAhmedAli won his Peace prize to the horrors of the war in Tigray. 1/5 https://t.co/vt4ZtIsNRC

— Simon Marks (@MarksSimon) May 20, 2021

Describing the experience on Twitter, Marks wrote: “Not only did Immigration officers prevent me from going home to collect my belongings but also from kissing goodbye to my beautiful 2-year-old son and two dogs, despite my polite requests. At least I could give my partner a kiss at the airport.”

Mohammed Idris, head of the Ethiopian Media Authority, told AFP Friday that Marks had no business staying in the country without a media license.

“You are here for a job. If you have the license, you will stay here. If you don’t have the license, if we revoke the license, the responsible body will send you back,” Mohammed said.

Marks has filed a series of hard-hitting reports on the war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.

His accreditation was cancelled shortly after he returned from a trip to Tigray in March.

Ethiopia’s government has imposed tough restrictions on journalists covering the conflict.

A number of Ethiopian journalists and translators working for a range of international media organisations — including AFP, Reuters, the BBC and the Financial Times — have been detained while doing their jobs in recent months.

Journalists and human rights groups have nonetheless uncovered growing evidence of atrocities committed by armed groups in the region, including Ethiopian soldiers and Eritrean troops fighting on the government’s behalf.

The revelations have contributed to growing international diplomatic pressure on Abiy, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who will seek a new term in elections scheduled for June 21.

The government has said it is committed to investigating human rights abuses committed during its fight against troops loyal to the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

(AFP)

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