Ethiopia dam row not yet military one: Egypt

CAIRO/ADDIS ABABA

Egypt’s armed forces are not yet involved in a dispute with Ethiopia over a giant dam on the Nile, a spokesman for the general staff said June 12, playing down bellicose rhetoric between Cairo and Addis Ababa.

“This is not a military issue at this stage,” Ahmed Mohamed Ali told Reuters after days of irate exchanges between Africa’s second and third most populous nations over a new hydroelectric plant that Egypt fears will reduce its vital water supply. Ethiopia’s Parliament, meanwhile, has endorsed the Nile River Cooperative Framework Agreement, an accord that replaces colonial-era deals that awarded Egypt and Sudan the majority water rights to the world’s longest river. The agreement, already signed by five other Nile River countries, was unanimously endorsed by Ethiopia’s 547-member Parliament yesterday.