Trump’s Comment on GERD Merits Strongest Possible Condemnation: The Sun

Addis Ababa October 30/2020 (ENA) President Donald Trump’s ‘invitation’ to Egypt to “blow up” the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is both reckless and provocative, and merits the strongest possible condemnation, THE SUN News Paper Wrote.

The statement is ethically reprehensible and against international law for a sitting American president to incite a country to attack another, The Sun Nigerian Daily said in its today’s editorial published under the title: “Trump’s reckless comment on the GERD”.

Pointing out the fact that the GERD is a hydro-electric project that consumes no water, the editorial further stated the dam  would have very little or no impact on the quantity of water available to Egypt.

“Given Trump’s tendency not to study issues before he claims to know them better than the experts, it is likely that he does not know that the GERD will not significantly reduce the flow of the Nile waters and so would not deprive Egypt of water, The Sun elaborated.

It also expressed its firm believe that the African Union (AU) under its current leader, South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, is open to the contributions of all the riparian states on the management of the GERD.

According to  the News Paper, countries looking up to benefiting from the 6,000 MW of electricity the dam is bound to generate include South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Tanzania, Burundi, and others.

Thus, no one who thinks of Africa’s progress can ever contemplate the blowing up of the GERD, it added.

The editorial urged the AU tripartite negotiating panel to hasten its work and get the parties to sign an agreement and once and for all end all the dangerous speculations and death wishes of Africa’s enemies.

“We have faith in the fairness of African solutions to Africa’s problems” the News Paper stated and said “We are aware of Egypt’s misgivings about the GERD but we also know its fears would be allayed as Ethiopia is sworn to a win-win agreement. That is the only condition by which the GERD would rise as a project Africa would be proud of.”