Dear Ethiopia...

By Nervana Mahmoud

Dear Ethiopia, Thank you for your letter. The fate of our two countries has been linked since ancient times, as described in Herodotus’s book An Account of Egypt, Egypt is the “gift of the Nile,” “it has soil which is black and easily breaks up, seeing that it is in truth mud and silt brought down from Ethiopia by the river.” It is sad you question Egypt’s African identity. It may sound surprising to you, but the vast majority of Egyptians are proud Africans. In 1990, my entire family was glued to the television, showing our support for Cameroon against England, in the World Cup. Last year, Egypt hosted the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Many Egyptians supported Senegal and Nigeria, who played Arab teams, in the final rounds because we see ourselves as Africans. Unfortunately, I do not believe that you — our African brothers — appreciate the potential disastrous impacts of your Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) on our livelihood in Egypt. Two factors, geography and climate, can neither can be disputed nor dismissed. The Nile basin in Egypt is mostly rainless, while its southern parts and the highlands of Ethiopia experience heavy rains. As Prof Khaled Abu Zeid wrote, there is a vast difference in natural climatic conditions between upstream and downstream in the Nile Basin. Egypt’s annual renewable water resources provide about 570 m3 per person per year, which is below the water scarcity limit of 1000 cubic meter per person per year. On the other hand, Ethiopia’s renewable water resources provide about 8100 m3 per person per year. Therefore, I find it astonishing that you compare your GERD project with our High Aswan Dam, missing the stark reality that our High Aswan Dam did not affect any other country. When we built it, we sought to optimise the use of its water without reducing the water share in any other country. Can you say the same about GERD? How can you celebrate your GERD project, knowing you are denying millions of innocent Egyptian children access to water and potentially exposing them to thirst and even death during severe droughts? You mentioned colonialism, asking, “How can we hold on to something whose origins — colonisation — you so despised?” The worst example of colonialism is when one power controls and denies others their basic water rights. It is striking that Ethiopia is expecting Egypt to “share carrying the burden that [Ethiopia believes] it has done for thousands of years.” Ethiopia, a home of 20 lakes, yet you have the nerve to dictate to Egypt how it should use its only source of water: the Nile River. Ethiopia’s economic grievances are mostly the legacy of decades of authoritarianism, not those of Egypt. The genocidal regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam was responsible for an estimated 1,200,000 to more than 2,000,000 Ethiopian deaths. Shifting the debate to Egypt’s military budget and our “informal economy” will not help build trust or good relations between our countries. Neither our informal economy nor our military budget can be converted to cubic meters of extra water supplies. Egypt adapted to our harsh water conditions for years. Furthermore, Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation established a National Water Resource Plan in 2017 with the aim of safeguarding and optimising our water resources. It is funny that you mentioned mosques. Perhaps you are not aware that, last year, our Ministry of Military Production collaborated with the Religious Endowment Ministry to fit all our mosques with water-saving tapes. The Egyptian government also has plans to increase desalinization and recycle sewage water and line canals. It has already started enforcing restrictions on planting water-intensive commodities, like rice, but all those efforts are not enough to offset the GERD reservoir’s filling period. It is cheap populism to dwell on past colonialism and ignore the course of the present negotiations. For years, Egypt negotiated with Ethiopia in good faith, with the hopes of reaching a fair deal on GERD that serves the interests of both countries. But as Ezzat Ibrahim wrote, the brazenness with which the Ethiopian proposal aimed to jettison all agreements and understandings that the three parties (i.e., Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia) had previously reached over the course of their negotiations, which have dragged on for almost a full decade, is surprising. This includes the understandings reached during the negotiating rounds brokered by Washington and attended by the World Bank. My dear Ethiopia, the Nile for Egypt is a matter of life and death. Is it too much for Egypt that hosts 20% of the Nile Basin countries’ population, with 97% of its land as desert, to benefit from only 3 % of the Nile Basin’s rainfall, as Prof Khaled Abu Zeid asked? The essence of “truth, balance, order, and justice” is on Egypt’s side in the dispute over your GERD. Water hegemony will not benefit Ethiopia. Ethiopia has other water sources besides the Nile; we Egyptians don’t. Egypt maintains that an agreement can be achieved, but that it “has to be negotiated in good faith." Our water security is neither a political game nor an economic one, but a basic human right that we cannot abandon. Your well-being cannot be built on the sufferings of our children. With love, An Egyptian

Malawi presidential election: State Broadcaster says opposition leading

Malawi's opposition is claiming victory in the re-run of last year's presidential election - which was held again after allegations of widespread rigging.

Official results for Tuesday's poll have not yet been declared by Malawi's electoral commission.

But state broadcaster MBC says opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera is leading with 59% of the vote.

President Peter Mutharika, who wants a second term, has 38%, it says.

A third candidate who was not regarded as a serious contender, Peter Kuwani, is said to have received less than 2% of votes.

Last year Malawi became the second African nation to annul a presidential election over irregularities, after Kenya 2017

BBC news

IMF predicts a deeper slow-down in Nigerian growth

Forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April predicting a 3.4% contraction of the Nigerian economy how now been downgraded.

The economy is now expected to shrink by 5.4%, according to the international lender’s latest forecast.

The IMF says Covid-19 has had more negative impact on global economic activities in the first quarter of 2020 than anticipated. It’s latest forecast is contained in its June World Economic Outlook.

Commercial activities are still not fully open in Nigeria while the aviation industry is still on lockdown as the country’s Covid-19 cases rose to 22,020 on Wednesday.

The oil industry which has been the main sustenance of the Nigerian government lost $125bn (£100bn) of its projected revenue in the first quarter of 2020. The government says it feared at least 70% of its oil revenue would be lost by the end of 2020.

BBC

Nigeria police rescue workers 'locked in rice factory'

Police in Nigeria have rescued more than 100 people they say were locked in a rice-processing factory and forced to work throughout a coronavirus lockdown.

From the end of March the men were allegedly not allowed to leave the mill in the northern city of Kano.

The workers were promised an additional $13 (£10) a month on top of their $72 monthly salary - those who did not accept were threatened with the sack.

Five managers at the Indian-owned mill have been arrested.

The company, called Popular Farms, has not responded to BBC requests for comment.Police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna told the BBC that the plant had now been shut down and the owners were being investigated for "holding the men against their will".

He said that 126 people had been found, although workers told the BBC there were 300.

Some of the men say were forced to work most of the time during their incarceration, with little food.

"We were allowed to rest for only a short time, no prayers were allowed, no family visits," 28-year-old Hamza Ibrahim, one of those rescued, told the BBC's Mansur Abubakar in Kano.

BBCnews

Ghana apologises to Nigeria for embassy demolition

President Nana Akufo-Addo has apologised to Nigeria after a building inside the Nigerian High Commission compound in Accra was demolished.

Mr Akufo-Addo has ordered an investigation, a statement from the Nigerian government said after his call with President Muhammadu Buhari.

Armed men reportedly stormed the compound last week and destroyed buildings under construction.

Two people have been arrested over the incident.

They have been charged with Unlawful Entry And Causing Unlawful Damage.

BBC news

APC dissolves NWC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has appointed Yobe Governor, Mai Mala Buni, as Chairman Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Committee of the party.

This followed the dissolution of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) by the National Executive Committee (NEC).

NEC’s decision followed the recommendation of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Nation

APC must not disintegrate, Buhari tells APC members

President Muhammadu Buhari has advised members of the governing party, All Progressives Congress (APC), to withdraw all pending litigations against one another, and settle for internal conciliation.

The president, who gave the advice at an emergency virtual meeting of the party’s National Working Committee (NEC), in Abuja on Thursday

warned that the mutating disagreements could lead to self-destruction, with dire consequences.

He further warned that the gains of the party could be reversed as conflicts overshadow the primary objective of service to the people, urging members to refocus on the larger picture and place more emphasis on uniting the party.

The Nation