Al Aharm: Ethiopia acknowledges Egypt's ownership of Nile
Ethiomedia | January 8, 2010

LONDON - Ethiopia, which along with other Nile upper riparian countries, has been accusing 'Egypt of keeping an unequitable, colonial-era monopoly of the Nile water,' has acknowledged Cairo's right to keep its quota over Nile resources, the Egyptian weekly Al Ahram reported on Friday.

Although the accord was signed in Addis Ababa on December 30, no media reported about such issue of great national and regional significance until Al Ahram broke the news today.

"The Ethiopian compromise, publicly acknowledging Egypt's right to its quota of Nile water, is an answer so obvious that one wonders why it was not on the table already. Now that it is, Ethiopia's pragmatism may produce better results," a buoyed Al Ahram said.

Political observers have over the years been suspicious of the move of Mr. Zenawi as his seemingly aggressive rhetoric against Cairo never matched his actions on the ground.

Ealier in 2005, Meles Zenawi angrily said: "While Egypt is transforming the Sahara Desert, Ethiopia is denied the possibility of using Nile water to feed itself," according to a report by David Shinn, a former US ambassador to Ethiopia.

But it was again Zenawi's pro-Egypt proposal that led to the split of riparian countries, with Sudan and Ethiopia standing behind Cairo as opposed to the other six riparian countries.

When Zenawi met his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Nazif, recently in Addis, a writer on Afrika.com observed: "This partnership agreement comes despite the two countries’ seemingly strong disagreement over the Nile issue, which has led to considerable tensions in Ethiopia-Egypt relations. There has been no official announcement as to whether or not Egypt has changed its stance on the water sharing issue."

In power since 1991, the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has committed serious crimes that may easily qualify as "treasonous," including pushing the United Nations to recognize Ethiopia as a landlocked nation in 1993, ceding a huge stretch of virgin forestland and farmlands to Khartoum in 2008-2009 (which was only known when Sudanese papers broke the news), up to the ongoing auctioning off Ethiopia's farmlands to 'foreign countries' in secret deals.

In spite of the treasonous crimes, Ethiopians remain largely chained inside a big prison that Mr. Zenawi called "ethnic federalism." If there is a glimmer of hope, a budding eight-party coalition called Forum (Medrek) and Ginbot Sebat movement, among others, may complement each other to weather the storm from Zenawi's side, and rescue the long-tormented country.

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