Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi says the Nile should serve as a source of cohesion and development, not of conflict with Ethiopia. (Photo: MENA)

BY REUTERS

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged on Thursday not to let differences over a dam Ethiopia is building on the Nile river ruin relations with Addis Ababa.

Egypt says it threatens its water supply which relies almost exclusively on the Nile that runs from Ethiopia through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. Addis Ababa says it will have no impact.

Sisi said negotiations with its two African neighbours were progressing and said a deadlock over a disputed, ongoing study on the dam’s impact must end.

“The Nile basin enjoys great resources and capabilities that makes it a source of interconnection, building and development, not a source of conflict,” Sisi told reporters after meeting Ethiopia’s prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, in Cairo.

Hailemariam echoed his comments: “We must make sure that this great river never becomes an object of competition, mistrust or conflict.”

Daughter of Ethiopia’s Former Leader Denounce Nile Dam Construction

By @ZekuZelalem

Tigist Mengistu, daughter of former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Hailemariam publishes an 11 min video on her Facebook account. In the video, she questions the necessity of building a Nile dam and says an Egyptian invasion of Ethiopia would be an opportunity to liberate the country.

Here is the excerpt where tTigist Mengistu says in the scenario of Egypt invading Ethiopia and overthrowing the government, she would rejoice and react with “እሰየው ግልግል!”

Despite her father being known for his furious belittling of the forces that were under the payroll of the likes of Egypt, Tigist Mengistu Hailemariam calls for Ethiopians to submit and not fight back in the event of an Egyptian attempt to invade Ethiopia.

According to Mengistu Hailemariam’s daughter, Emperor Haileselassie had looked into the Nile River Dam possibilities. She says study by Haileselassie’s experts determined there would be no benefit in damming the Nile and with that, the emperor decided to give up his Nile dream.

Finally, Tigist Mengistu says Ethiopia’s Derg regime led by her father Mengisu Hailemariam decided against building a dam on the Nile after establishing that the Nile River was of no use to Ethiopia and would only serve to stoke tensions with Egypt and Sudan.