SUDAN

Tag Archive for: Sudan

Ethiopia accuses Sudan of occupying its lands, fighting by proxy for third party

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

MEMO | The border area has witnessed tension between Ethiopia and Sudan that is still escalating-Getty

Ethiopia has accused its neighbour Sudan on Friday of occupying part of its territory and fighting by proxy for a “third party”.

This was reported by the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA), quoting a member of the Ethio-Sudan Joint Boundary Commission Wuhib Muluneh.

According to Muluneh, Ethiopia: “Feels that reaching a bilateral decision is the best way out of the crisis rather than inviting a third party to interfere.” In an interview with ENA, he stressed: “There are doubts that a third party was behind the Sudanese move, which refers to a proxy war.”

Muluneh added that in light of the long-standing relations between the two countries, the dispute must be resolved peacefully, confirming that reactivating the border mechanisms is the only option to end the recent border crisis between Ethiopia and Sudan.

Muluneh asserted that before the start of any negotiations, the Sudanese army must evacuate the area “occupied” earlier by its troops who attempted to displace Ethiopian farmers, as he put it.

Sudan has not yet commented on the Ethiopian accusations.

Relations between Sudan and Ethiopia have been undergoing escalating tensions for weeks, following the outbreak of armed attacks on the borders of the two countries. Khartoum asserts that the attacks were carried out by Ethiopian militias backed by army forces on Sudanese territory, while Addis Ababa denies the accusations.

Ethiopia Moves Artillery to Sudanese Border After Deadly Clashes

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Bloomberg | Sudan delegation met Saudi officials to discuss crisis. Tension adds to dispute over construction of giant hydro dam. 

Ethiopia moved heavy weapons to disputed territory on its border with Sudan, according to people familiar with the matter.

The military build-up in an area known as the al-Fashqa triangle signals increasing tensions, after deadly clashes in recent weeks raised international concern. Sudanese officials met Saudi Arabian officials in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss the crisis, after the U.K. last week called for a de-escalation of tensions.

The Ethiopian army deployed armaments including tanks and anti-aircraft batteries to the border region in the past two weeks, said two foreign diplomats who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokeswoman Billene Seyoum referred a request for comment to the Foreign Ministry, and Redwan Hussein, spokesman for the government’s emergency task force, didn’t respond to a request for comment sent by text message.

Ethiopia’s government earlier this month accused the Sudanese military of carrying out organized attacks using machine-guns and armored convoys at their border. Those attacks killed “many civilians,” according to Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry.

Tensions between the two nations have ratcheted up since conflict erupted in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region on Nov. 4. Regional analysts and diplomats have said Abiy is under pressure from powerful Amhara politicians in his government, including Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen, not to back down on the border dispute.

The state of Amhara, whose fighters backed the Ethiopian federal army’s incursion into Tigray, claims ownership of parts of al-Fashqa, including areas that are within Sudanese territory. Historically, Khartoum has allowed Amhara farmers to conduct business and live in the fertile area as long as they pay taxes and operate under Sudanese laws. In turn, Ethiopia has recognized the land as Sudanese.

Demeke’s spokesman, Dina Mufti, didn’t answer two calls to his mobile phone seeking comment.

The border dispute is straining relations already weakened by an impasse over a giant hydropower dam Ethiopia is building on the main tributary of the Nile River. Sudan and Egypt depend on the flow of the river for fresh water, and both countries want Ethiopia to agree to rules on the filling and operating of the reservoir to safeguard supplies.

Sudan says the border area around al-Fashqa was demarcated under colonial-era treaties dating back to 1902, putting the land firmly inside its international borders.
Mohamed al-Faki Suleiman, a member of Sudan’s transitional government, said Wednesday he’d sought political support from Saudi Arabia in talks he held in Riyadh, Sudan’s state-run SUNA news agency reported. Any eruption of war could affect security in the wider region, including the Red Sea, he said.

How Egypt is supporting Sudan in border conflict

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Al-Monitor — A delegation from the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, headed by Lt. Gen. Shamseldin al-Kabashi and Director of the General Intelligence Service Jamal Abdul Majeed, visited Cairo Jan. 14, where they met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to discuss the latest developments on the border conflict with Ethiopia and the military operations led by the Sudanese army to liberate the territories from the armed Ethiopian militias.

The visit came as part of Sudan’s regional moves that are expected to include other visits to Arab countries, namely the Gulf, such as Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to request “diplomatic and legal support,” according to a Jan. 14 statement by Sudanese Foreign Minister Omar Qamar al-Din.

However, on Jan. 25, tensions escalated on the Sudanese-Ethiopian border when violent clashes with heavy weapons and artillery broke out in the Jabal Abu al-Toyour border area.

In December 2020, the Sudanese army deployed its soldiers on the border in al-Fashqa region to liberate Sudanese lands from groups affiliated with the Ethiopian militias that have been benefiting from the cultivation of hundreds of acres of fertile land since 1995.

A diplomatic source familiar with Egyptian-Sudanese ties told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “Egypt has been carefully observing the tension on the Sudanese borders since the beginning of the skirmishes because it is concerned with protecting peace and security in the African region, especially in the neighboring countries.”

He said, “Cairo has taken no recent action to support any of the conflicting parties, but Egypt welcomes Sudan’s request for support and assistance in its legal position to regain and liberate its lands.”

The source noted, “Egypt adopts policies that support peaceful solutions through dialogue and negotiation to restore peace and resolve all outstanding issues.”

He explained, “Restoring calm between Khartoum and Addis Ababa would be in Cairo’s interest — unlike what Ethiopia has been promoting in the media by throwing accusations against Egypt.”

Cairo has made no official comment on the border conflict between Khartoum and Addis Ababa since the beginning of the crisis, except in an strongly worded statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Dec. 31, 2020, in response to statements by Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti. The latter had touched on the Egyptian internal affairs by criticizing the human rights situation in Egypt. Cairo considered the statement a “blatant transgression,” accusing Ethiopia of pursuing “continuous hostile practices against its regional surroundings,” referring to the Ethiopian attacks on Sudanese territory.

Egypt and Sudan are both committed to the Treaty of Joint Defense and Economic Cooperation, under the umbrella of the Arab League, which stipulates in Article 2, “The Contracting States consider any [act of] armed aggression made against any one or more of them or their armed forces, to be directed against them all. Therefore, in accordance with the right of self-defense, individually and collectively, they undertake to go without delay to the aid of the State or States against which such an act of aggression is made, and immediately to take, individually and collectively, all steps available, including the use of armed force, to repel the aggression and restore security and peace.”

Maj. Gen. Khaled Okasha, a security expert and head of the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor, “Egypt is well aware of the sensitivity of the tripartite relationship between it and Sudan and Ethiopia, and interfering in this conflict will worsen the situation without resolving it.”

He noted, “Sudan is able to recover its lands through all legal, diplomatic and military means, and it does not need Egypt’s support. Egypt realizes that these are all recurring conflicts and are not of a level that threatens Egyptian national security.”

However, Okasha added, “The escalating tension between Sudan and Ethiopia over the lands in al-Fashqa region revealed the true positions of Ethiopia, which has long claimed to be a sister country of Sudan that protects its interests in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam [GERD] issue.”

In an unprecedented military cooperation between Egypt and Sudan, units from Egypt’s air force and Saiqa (Thunderbolt) commando forces carried out joint air maneuvers with Sudan, dubbed Nile Eagles-1, on Nov. 19, 2020. The maneuvers included a number of offensive and defensive sorties on targets, while the Saiqa forces carried out drills on combat search and rescue work.

Okasha stressed, “The Egyptian military maneuvers with Sudan are not an exceptional situation, but rather a restoration of normal relations between the two countries, which had been tense throughout the period of Islamic rule in Sudan.”

In a Jan. 25 interview with Al-Arabiya channel, Sudanese Minister of Defense Lt. Gen. Yassin Ibrahim Yassin linked the border dispute with Ethiopia to the GERD negotiations, noting that “the common factor in both cases is the Ethiopian delay.”

Speaking about the possibilities of Egyptian intervention to mediate between Sudan and Ethiopia to solve the border crisis, Mona Omar, a former assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, told Al-Monitor, “I rule out such a possibility, especially with Ethiopia’s intransigent positions with Egypt in the GERD negotiations and its lack of respect for the historical charters and agreements that define mechanisms for dealing with the Nile water.”

She said, “At the present time Egypt can offer to support Sudan by raising the [border] issue in international forums and providing legal support.”

Omar noted, “Egypt’s policy does not consist of working in secret or fueling conflict between two countries, especially since Cairo is well aware that should the Sudanese-Ethiopian tension no longer be limited to mere clashes, it would have negative effects and repercussions on security in the region.”

She added, “Despite the internal calls to resort to a military solution against Ethiopia in the GERD issue — which is a matter of life and death for Egypt — the Egyptian administration committed itself to peaceful dialogue and negotiation as a way to solve the crisis.”

Since the outbreak of the confrontations with Ethiopia on the eastern border of Sudan, Khartoum has taken more hard-line stances on the GERD issue, completely rejecting the Ethiopian positions during the negotiations rounds sponsored by the African Union (AU).

Sudanese government spokesman and Minister of Information Faisal Saleh said in a press statement Jan. 23, “Sudan will not accept the imposition of a fait accompli in the GERD [issue], and we have the means to respond to Ethiopia. AU mediation [in the GERD issue] in its old form is no longer useful.”

Egypt’s moves to support Sudan in its border conflict with Ethiopia come as part of a new era of cooperation and coordination between Cairo and Khartoum to stop any threats affecting the common interests and national security of the two countries, especially in the Nile water file.

Sudanese patrol shelled by Ethiopian forces. Ethiopia asks Sudan to pull troops out for border talks

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Sudanese patrol shelled by Ethiopian forces.

Tension has escalated between Sudan, Ethiopia along their borderline.

A Sudanese patrol came under shelling from Ethiopian forces on Sunday near the border with Ethiopia, according to local media.

Sudan Tribune news portal, citing a military source, said mortar shells were fired by Ethiopian forces at the patrol in the eastern Al-Gadaref province.

No injuries were reported and the Sudanese military has yet to issue an official statement.

The attack came amid rising tensions between Khartoum and Addis Ababa over their borderline.

Last week, Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok informed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Sudanese forces were deployed within the country’s borders. Hamdok stressed that Khartoum was not seeking war with Addis Ababa.

Sudan accuses Ethiopia of supporting militias that attack Sudanese army forces in the border area, an accusation denied by Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia asks Sudan to pull troops out for border talks

Ethiopia on Tuesday reiterated its call for Sudan to pull back from disputed territories its troops have been in since late last year.

In late December, Sudanese soldiers reportedly moved up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) into Ethiopian-held territories, including the contested fertile agricultural region of Al-Fashaga, which Ethiopia called an act of blackmail by its western neighbor.

Ethiopia then launched a diplomatic effort to get Sudanese forces out of the territories to promote a return to the normal mechanisms of dialogue to resolve the century-long border dispute.

“Ethiopia is committed to a peaceful resolution of the border differences with Sudan,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told a weekly news briefing.

Any possibility of mediation would require Sudan to pull its forces to positions prior to late December, when Ethiopia first signaled a breach of its borders, he added.

“We have had mechanisms, technical and political committees,” he said, adding that the two countries need to get back to those resolution mechanisms through dialogue.

Asked how long Ethiopia would maintain a diplomatic stance while Sudan remains in the contested territories, Dina said: “We will cross that river when we come to it.”

Sudanese military leaders have not shown any sign of heeding Ethiopia’s call, though, and reiterate they reclaimed their own territories.

The Horn of Africa nation decries how Sudan, otherwise considered a friendly neighbor, took the move when Ethiopia’s defense forces were busy dealing with the outlawed Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) after it stormed the federal army’s Northern Command last year, killing soldiers and looting military hardware

Sudan Responds with Force to Border Attack from Ethiopia

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Asharq Al-Awsat | The Sudanese military responded with artillery fire to an attack from Ethiopia against its forces deployed on a share border region with its neighbor.

Ethiopian forces struck the Jabal Abutiour border region on Sunday. The area is controlled by Sudan. No casualties were reported.

Amid the clashes, a military delegation, headed by chief of staff Mohammed Othman al-Hussein, headed to the border region to assess the latest developments and military operations.

The fighting took place despite statements from Khartoum and Addis Ababa that they wanted to avoid a border war. They instead stressed the need for negotiations to defuse tensions.

Ethiopia has, however, conditioned that the military withdraw from regions that were recaptured. Sudan has rejected any negotiations on the border, saying its forces are controlling their country’s territories.

It also says that the borders are recognized internationally and all that remains is to set the markers that have been removed due to the nature of the area. It urged the need to set the markers within close distances from each other whereby each point can be seen from the next with the naked eye.

Sudanese Defense Minister Yassin Ibrahim Yassin told Al Arabiya that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s remarks about “disputed regions” prompted Khartoum to dispatch military units to impose their control over Sudanese regions on the border.

Yassin slammed the PM’s remarks over the alleged border dispute, saying the borders are “clearly demarcated according to international agreements.”

He also refused to link the border developments to the stalled negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

“The common factor in both these issues is Ethiopia’s stalling,” he charged. “We do not acknowledge a dispute in the first place so negotiations are not valid.”

Tensions have been high on the border since December after the Sudanese military redeployed its forces in the al-Fashqa region, expelling Ethiopian militias that were controlling it.

The move was prompted by an attack by the militias against Sudanese forces.

Sudan prevents ambassador from travelling back to Ethiopia by land

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

MEMO | Sudan has prevented Ambassador Yibtalal Amero from travelling overland back to Ethiopia due to tension on the border between the two countries.

A security source told Anadolu Agency that the Ethiopian ambassador submitted a request to the security services in Khartoum on Saturday to allow him to travel by land to his country. The fact that an answer is still not forthcoming implies rejection of the application.

The authorities in Khartoum apparently fear that the ambassador’s life might be endangered due to the situation on the border and in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region. The ambassador, explained the same source, flew to Addis Ababa, where he arrived safely.

On 4 November, armed clashes erupted between the Ethiopian Federal Army and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. The federal government in Addis Ababa announced on 28 November that its forces had ended their operation successfully by controlling the entire region and its capital.

Sudanese-Ethiopian relations have been tense along the border, sparked by an armed attack against the Sudanese army in Umm Durman in mid-December. Khartoum said that Ethiopian militias had seized the land of Sudanese farmers in the Fashaqa area, after expelling them by force of arms. Sudan also accused the Ethiopian army of supporting these gangs, which Addis Ababa denies, describing the armed groups are outlaws.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced last Sunday that Sudan has agreed to South Sudan mediating to resolve border disputes between his country and Ethiopia.

Sudan calls on Ethiopia to close GERD deal

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Sudanese Minister of Culture and Information Faisal Saleh has expressed concern over the second filling of Ethiopia’s Great Renaissance Dam (GERD), Al-Arabiya news reported .

The dam cannot be brought into operation until Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa reach a binding agreement, he said. This is a legally confirmed document that will allow three parties to regulate the water level in the bed of the Blue Nile River.

Faisal Saleh expressed concern about Sudan amid Ethiopia’s unwavering commitment to begin the second filling of the dam in July this year, despite the lack of agreement.

“We do not agree with the imposition of a fait accompli. The Khartoum authorities are ready to give an appropriate rebuff in case of arbitrariness of Addis Ababa,” the head of the Ministry of Culture and Information said.

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok met last week with the country’s GERD High Monitoring Committee, where he said it is unacceptable to risk the safety of the 20 million citizens whose lives depend on the Blue Nile.

Recall that in the summer of 2020, Ethiopia announced the successful filling of the Renaissance Dam (4.9 billion cubic meters) during the rainy season.

A few days later, Sudan recorded a decrease in the water level in the Blue Nile, coming from Ethiopia. This has sparked disputes between countries, including Egypt, lasting more than half a year.

The Sudanese-Ethiopian relations have been witnessing an escalating tension for weeks due to armed attacks on the borders of the two countries, which Khartoum says were carried out by Ethiopian militias backed by government forces on Sudanese territory.

On January 12, Sudan announced that Ethiopian forces launched an attack on the Al-Fashaqa area within the Sudanese borders in Gedaref State, killing 6 people, 5 women and a child.

In turn, Ethiopia accused the Sudanese forces of “seizing 9 camps” within the Ethiopian borders and “violating the agreement signed between the two countries in 1972 on border issues by invading Ethiopian territory.”

Last week, Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti accused Egypt of intensifying its destabilization efforts against Ethiopia and the volatile Horn of Africa region. “The Egyptian government is pushing Sudan to engage in a conflict with Ethiopia, in its bid to weaken both countries,” the official said.

Recently, an Egyptian official admitted Egypt’s concerted effort to delay the second filling of the GERD: “It is true that Egypt played a role in the recent Sudanese escalation, but it does not want to stir a complete military confrontation between them [Sudan and Ethiopia]. It only wants a military escalation to achieve a political solution, which is the delay of the second filling of the GERD until a final solution is reached, since filling the dam has negative repercussions on the flow of water to Egypt,” the official said.

Sudanese army repels missile attack launched by Ethiopia on Abou Toyour Mountain

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

A military source told Sky News Arabia Monday that the Sudanese army repelled a missile attack launched by Ethiopia on Abou Toyour Mountain in the evening of Sunday.

The source stated that no injuries or casualties were recorded, and that the Sudanese army holds the right to respond.

In November, the Sudanese army spread its forces in Fashaqa border area after restoring lands that used to be cultivated by Ethiopian farmers since 1995.

Earlier this month, Sudan imposed an air ban on the border area after what it had described as a dangerous escalation. On January 13, an Ethiopian military jet infringed the airspace, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared warning of the consequences embodied in more tensions in the borders area.

The ministry urged the Ethiopian side not to repeat such hostile acts in the future for their negative impact on the future of bilateral relations and security and stability in the Horn of Africa.

The ministry had earlier declared that an assault against Sudanese villagers was carried out by Ethiopia’s Shafta gangs in the evening of Monday. Those were harvesting crops in Al Qaresha lying five kilometers away from the Ethiopian borders. The attack resulted in the killing of five women and a child. Also, two women disappeared.

Some Ethiopian groups used to cultivate lands in Sudan’s Fashqa region for decades, which was tolerated by overthrown leader Omar al-Bashir but is no longer accepted by the transitional government. In May, Ethiopian militias attacked a camp in the eastern city of al-Qadarif killing and wounding several Sudanese military personnel and civilians.

The Sudanese Armed Forces sent reinforcements to Al Fashqa after the attack that killed four and injured 20 military personnel who were patrolling the southern borders on December 15, as reported by Sky News Arabia.

The assault came two days after Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok cut his visit to Addis Ababa returning to his homeland after a few hours instead of staying for two days. Some media reported that Hamdok offered mediation between the Ethiopian Federal Government and the Trigray People’s Liberation Front but his offer was turned down by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

It is noted that 50,000 out of 950,000 displaced Ethiopians fled to Sudan because of the fighting initiated by the Ethiopian federal government against the Tigray region.

Hamdok issued a press release declaring that a force was patrolling Abou Toyour Mountain on the Sudanese territory, and on its way back, “it was ambushed by Ethiopian militias and forces.”

Sudan and Ethiopia share borders of 1,600 kilometers, while the surface area of the disputed Al Fashaqa region is 250 square kilometers.

An Ethiopian delegation arrived in Khartoum on December 22 to discuss the border demarcation matter with the Sudanese side for two days within the framework of the High Joint Committee on Border Issues, as reported by Al Arabiyah.

The meeting is an activation of the committee, and takes place one day after local media reported that the Sudanese Armed Forces was advancing in Al Fashaqa border district occupied by Ethiopia.

Sudan wants its borders to match the description indicated in the 1902 Agreement signed between Ethiopian and Great Britain, which was occupying Sudan at the time.

Sudan, Ethiopia, and Egypt also have disagreements over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Sudan withdrew from the talks twice.

The capacity of the dam worth $4.6 billion is 74 billion cubic meters so that its filling would be detrimental to the water shares of Egypt (55.5 billion cubic meters), and Sudan (18.5 billion cubic meters). Ethiopia intends to fill 13.5 billion cubic meters in summer, and plans to build two other dams. It began the filling process in summer 2020 with five billion cubic meters.

Constructions in the Grand Renaissance Dam started on April 2, 2011 by the Italian construction and engineering company Salini Impergilo headquartered in Milan. The dam is located on the Blue Nile, and is expected to generate up to 6,000 megawatts of power.

(©Egypt Today)

The East African war escalates, Ethiopia accuses Sudan of occupying 9 camps

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

NetEase| According to Ethiopian sources, Ethiopian ambassador to Sudan Ibtalal Amero accused the Sudanese army of occupying nine camps in Ethiopia. In Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, Amelo told representatives of the UN Truce International Organization and foreign ambassadors: “We are surprised by the Sudanese army’s attack on Ethiopian territory. Since November last year, the Sudanese army has occupied 9 camps in Ethiopia.”

While Ethiopian diplomats called on the Sudanese army to stop cross-border attacks and resolve the border issue with Ethiopia by peaceful means, the head of the Sudanese National Border Commission, General Moaz Ahmed Tango, denied that the Sudanese army “controls Ethiopia”. Territory. He said: “There is no Sudanese army on Ethiopian territory. They are all deployed in Sudan and they know the location of the border.”

At the same time, the Ethiopian army is deploying its “Armor-S1” air defense missile system to the border with Sudan. This happened against the background of the deterioration of relations between the two countries. The Ethiopian armed forces are gathering military forces in the border area with Sudan. The situation between the two countries has deteriorated due to another border dispute. The Sudanese military said that the Ethiopian Air Force of Ethiopia attacked its own targets. It is said that the attack by the Ethiopian government forces resulted in the death of civilians and the death of the Sudanese Defence Force.

The Ethiopian army is deploying reinforcements along the border with Sudan. In this case, Ethiopia will be given a special role for its air defense. Among other air defense missile equipment transferred to the border, the “Armor-S1” air defense missile and Russian radar system shipped from Russia to Ethiopia in 2019 were seen. With the help of Russian air defense missiles, the Ethiopian military intends to defend against air strikes by Sudanese fighters.

“The Ethiopian army organizes heavy weapons near the border with Sudan. Amhara has been pushing their prime minister into war. Internally against Tigray  and externally against Sudan. It seems that the end of the old empire is near!” The Sudanese side believes that the Ethiopian army is opening fire everywhere, but if the Ethiopian government forces go to war with Sudan, it will inevitably face the tragedy of total defeat.

The “Armor-S1” air defense missile performed well during the armed conflicts between Syria and Libya. The targets of the “Armor-S1” air defense missile include modern Turkish inspection and strike integrated drones. Considering the potential enemy of Ethiopia, the Sudanese Air Force uses outdated aircraft and helicopters, mainly Russian MiG-29 fighter jets and Chinese-made “Mountain Eagle” trainer attack aircraft. This modern air defense system is used in areas where conflicts may occur. The emergence of the Sudan Air Force greatly complicates the use of fighters.

Egypt may attack Ethiopia by force, all because of a dam

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Tencent QQ | Negotiations between the three African countries broke down, Egypt may attack Ethiopia by force, all because of a dam

What is the most important thing in the world? Except for air, it is water. People can survive without eating for seven days, but if they don’t drink water for three days, they may be thirst to death. Wars that erupt because of water resources are not uncommon in human history, and new examples that may occur now are in Africa. A piece of news came out a few days ago that the tripartite negotiations among the three African countries of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan have broken down because of Ethiopia’s reconstruction of the dam, and the waves of armed settlement of disputes are rising in the Egyptian media. According to local media reports, a large number of Egyptian military personnel have already begun to prepare, and the high level of the Egyptian military has also announced that the option of resolving disputes by force is not ruled out in the future.

The construction of the dam in Ethiopia, the entire project, has been controversial. This dam built on the Nile River is said to be related to the problems of three countries. This is because as we all know, Africa is already very short of water, and whoever has the water source has the great initiative. Previously, because Egypt itself fell into turmoil during the Arab Spring, and Sudan had no time to take care of it due to the civil war, Ethiopia found an opportunity. The project was formally approved by the late Ethiopian Meles in 2011. Once this hydropower station with a generating capacity of 6 million kilowatts is completed, it will be a huge boost to Ethiopia’s industrial development and can smoothly solve the problem of power shortage in Ethiopia. But doing so will seriously affect the water use problems of the other two countries, Sudan and Egypt.

Sudan and Egypt also know it well. After the domestic situation stabilized, these two countries also put forward their opinions to Ethiopia. After all, the water resources of the Nile River are limited. The three countries are also racking their brains in order to distribute water resources. Everyone wants to win more for themselves. This is understandable, but Ethiopia has not had the last laugh lately. In the beginning, Ethiopia took advantage of the civil strife in the other two countries to build the dam. Now Ethiopia is also experiencing a crisis of civil war. The two neighboring countries have not hesitated to retaliate against Ethiopia, taking advantage of the fire. The issue of Filling Dam has been solved. And now it is catching up with the critical moment of the second impoundment of the dam. For Egypt, it has reached the point of threatening their lifeline.

In this regard, there have been some reports from the Egyptian military, and they will not rule out the use of force. This includes directly attacking the dam itself. But doing so violates the UN’s laws of war. After all, an attack on a hydroelectric power station requires an international court. However, some people in Egypt have suggested that instead of attacking the dam itself, just attacking a few nearby power stations can disable the dam’s function. As for Sudan’s involvement in Ethiopia’s civil war affairs, there are rumors that Sudanese militia guerrillas have been discovered in the Tigray area of ​​Ethiopia, which has made the local chaotic war even more unbearable.

Now that wars have spread around the dam, whether new wars can break out depends entirely on whether the three local countries have the patience to continue the talks. Some people believe that the key lies in whether the three parties can reach an agreement in the next three months. Otherwise, when water resources are scarce in the dry season, the three countries will really fight for water.