No wonder that the late Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, had to go out of the constitution and resort to dictatorial methods to protect his power and prevent the country from falling apart. Equally unsurprising is the fact that the refusal to generate a collective being, a general will by transcending ethnic distinctions turns any officeholder, including the Prime Minister, into a representative of an ethnic group.
In comparison to the Aswad dam, GERD construction began after appropriate site suitability studies, and relevant testing was conducted for its geology and geomorphology, by a reputable engineering firm. Also, the structural or engineering materials with optimal strength to withstand the horizontal hydraulic thrust was selected with the application of the advanced technologies of the 21st century. The whole project is contracted by WeBuild-Salini, a European company, with rich experience in building more than 200 Dams around the world.
The current position taken by the US administration is very dangerous and emboldening the remnants of the terrorist group and further fueling the conflict and the suffering of the people in Northern Ethiopia. It is also promoting unending inter-ethnic conflicts between Tigray and the rest of Ethiopia with devastating and unfathomable consequences for the subregion.
S foreign policy for the Horn has been entirely dominated by TPLF sympathizers who are working for successive US administration at the White House, State Department, and the United Nations. The TPLF led regime had repeatedly used its involvement in the counter terrorism strategy in the Horn of Africa to cheat and cement its importance to the western powers.
Sudan and Egypt’s cynical attempts to pressurize Ethiopia using different tactics to relinquish its dream of completing the GERD is unacceptable. It is high time that Egypt and Sudan realize that Africans in the continent and the diaspora are cautiously monitoring their disrespect to AU-led negotiation processes. If they do not refrain from their belligerent acts, they will risk significant sociopolitical crisis and ultimately Africans may come to terms with the reality that they indeed stand against anti-development aspirations of the continent’s poor states.
“Those who have wrecked Libya and turned it into an anarchic nightmare are trying to put to practice their dark art on Ethiopia. The African Union and all who value peace and stability in the horn of Africa should stand with Ethiopia in resisting the neocolonial machinations of some western actors and the teorrrism of TPLF.”
Notes by the editor: On July 6th, 2021, Ethiopia notified its Egyptian and Sudanese counterparts on the start of the second filling of the massive hydroelectric power project known as Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). While Egypt has “categorically rejected” Ethiopia’s move, the latter has insisted that such infrastructure project is designed to benefit majority Ethiopians without access to electricity and being constructed in good faith; therefore, it will not be affecting future water flow and sharing to the lower riparian states. The issue is now tabled for discussion at the UNSC in an extraordinary meeting called by Sudan. Many independent observers contend that the UN body has no mandate or expertise to host a meeting of this nature.
They were several indicators that something was wrong with the interim government in Tigray set up to administer, rebuild and rehabilitate Tigray region. It is clear from the recent outcome that the interim government failed to live up to its mandate. There were sabotages by significant elements of the Interim administration of Tigray.
It’s up to the Ethiopian people and government to safeguard the nation’s integrity and national interest from being sacrificed on the altar of the US’s newly articulated strategic objective, by holding firm the principle of independence and non-interference of others in the conduct of the nation’s affairs.
Currently the country is under great stress and in distress as the result of pressure from outside actors working hand in gloves with their counterparts from inside. They all seem to be determined and have unleashed all their resources from their military hardware to social media to render the forthcoming election a fiasco. The situation has some similarity with the one we had experienced following the Ethiopian Revolution in the 1970’s. This unholy alliance ought to be defeated at all costs.
