NAIROBI, Kenya – Egypt and Sudan have firmly squashed a fresh accord about the Nile’s waters ratified under the Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA). This has charged up a simmering rift in the Horn of Africa.
With six upstream nations giving the nod to the pact this week, tensions among Nile-dependent countries are now bubbling over. The majestic Nile traces its beginnings to both Lake Victoria and the Ethiopian Highlands.
Historically heavyweight players, Cairo and Khartoum stressed that the new deal threatens to teeter the whole region on the brink of chaos. They’re now calling for a reinstatement of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) of 1999.
"The six-nation committee under the incomplete CFA does not represent the full interests of the Nile Basin," stated an official communiqué.
This new commission, birthed from the CFA, doesn’t quite cover all bases for the surrounding countries, they added.
"This is no treaty that speaks for the whole Nile Basin," remarked a PJTC member, putting a question mark over the new entity’s legitimacy.
The CFA, backed by Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda, is likely to stir the pot even more. The plan is to set up the Nile River Basin Commission, yet Egypt and Sudan adamantly spell out their disagreements.
These two nations insist that CFA directly challenges old-time water rights set in stone by treaties from 1929 and 1959. According to them, these legacy agreements, which granted a sizeable chunk of Nile water to Egypt and Sudan, still stand under the law.
For a desert country like Egypt, the Nile is crucial, supplying 98% of its water. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, over the weekend, warned that Egypt would defend its Nile interests staunchly.
"We can’t afford any water loss," he declared, voicing serious concerns about Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam, a massive project emblematic of Ethiopia’s road to modernity and self-reliance.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed lauded the CFA’s ratification as a landmark stride toward reshaping the distribution of the river’s riches more fairly.
"We are unified in our quest for sustainable growth, benefiting all Nile Basin nations," remarked Abiy earlier this year, yet his assurances did little to shake the anxieties downstream.
In a strategic alliance, Egypt has teamed up with Somalia and Eritrea, vowing to safeguard Somalia’s territorial integrity against Ethiopia’s anticipated moves. However, Ethiopia has aired grievances regarding Egypt’s maneuvers in Somalia, including its plans to send troops to the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), set to kick off in January 2025.
AXADLETM
