Egyptian tycoon beats the drum of war over Nile dam

Egyptian tycoon beats the drum of war over Nile dam
  • Comments received an angry respond on social media

Egyptian business tycoon and the country’s second-richest man, Naguib Sawiris, fired a shot at Ethiopia in his Twitter feed. “We will never allow any country to starve us, if Ethiopia doesn’t come to reason, we the Egyptian people will be the first to call for war,” Mr. Sawiris wrote on Twitter.

The comment came in the midst of trilateral talks on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan, which Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources & Irrigation reportedly described as not going well because of Addis Ababa’s “intransigence”.

Naguib Sawiris, chairman and chief executive officer of Orascom Telecom Media And Technology Holding SAE, has become the latest among the list of Egyptian political and business elites who have been threatening to go to war to secure continued access to the Nile waters. This is a far cry for a man who came to Ethiopia two years ago with the intention to invest in the country and posted a picture of himself with the Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed.

The comments received an angry response on social media, including one from Daniel Ethiopia who wrote that,

https://twitter.com/DanielEthiopia/status/1271989950557421574

Ethiopian journalist Zecharias Zelalem commented in a post, saying

https://twitter.com/ZekuZelalem/status/1271968108710895619

Another Ethiopian Twitter user wrote,

A more moderate and nuanced comment from an American expat residing in Ethiopia,

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10 thoughts on “Egyptian tycoon beats the drum of war over Nile dam

  1. That would be biting the hand that feeds. The idiocy of the Egyptians is astounding. Really, let’s see them try. Amassing warfare doesn’t make one an expert in fighting.

  2. Egypt do you know? MASS GRAVES and WAR CRIMES by HAFTER :That is just s small taste of what war criminal HAFTER was going to do to rest of LIBYA if Turks did not stopped him, he should be arrested and tried for war crimes, shame on UAE, Egypt, Saudi, France, Jordan Russia Greece for backing this war criminal, Egypt’s Dictator SISi , UAE ,Saudi Fake Kings are so afraid of Turkish style Democratic Islam will end their brutal rules they back Muslim Killing Muslims. ,Greece also backed the war criminal who was Serbian murdirrer who is named ” Butcher of Bosnia ” killing 300,000 Muslims.Life in Prison now.

  3. Instead of beating the drums of war, you would be better advised to start diversifying Egypt’s water source, including exploiting its vast underground aquifer water resource as well as enhancing its water desalination capacity from the Mediterranean and Red seas! Ethiopia contributes > 85% of the Nile waters; and as such, has the “full, inalienable, natural, & sovereign right” to use the Nile waters for its development – both for consumptive and non-consumptive purposes. We do not seek any body’s permission to exercise our rights!
    And if you choose the route of the battlefield, we shall prove the unflinching valiance of our gallant armed forces.
    Talk is cheap: from which battle had Egypt emerged victorious in recent memory? Suez crisis? The 6-day war? The Yom Kippur war? The Sinai insurgency?

    None!!

  4. The most backward and fearful people who had never won a battle in their history. The Albanians and Turks were thier rulers until 1952. Who was that Isreal woman right after she delivered a daughter joined the war gallantly, where a dozen Egyptian soldiers surrender to her hand up. That is the Egypt we know now. As for their billionaires how low they are in the eyes of the world please read this. Ethiopian are not Nubians.

    https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/egyptian-tycoon-hisham-talaat-mustafa-arrives-to-attend-his-news-photo/83700942

  5. Abera Lambebo Temamo · Edit

    Let me tell the truth, provoking a war of someone of your age is shameful. please don’t be a heartless person. As you know that at this moment Abay river the main provider of Nile water is at a virtue drying. look at our policy we are planting billions of trees to save it, if you care go and invest in other options of a water source. if you face the war with us, no doubt that you are the one who is going to lose. Not only if you are defeated you and your country may not get a drop of water. be sure that being defeated is not our characteristic, read the history of Gundet, Gurgura bichana and Guramba Ethio Egyptian war you may learn there.The only option is negotiation, communication, and working together. don’t run here and there once to America or Middle east, this water is African water black peoples resource.

    1. War is not the solution to win the negotiation ;however, Egypt choose war Don’t worry Ethiopian know how to return their enemies.

  6. Demelash Geberemarime · Edit

    war is not the solution to convince the Ethiopian Government; however, Egypt tear the commitment between two countries and choose war that is not the wise idea because Ethiopian also know how to treat their enemies.

  7. We Ethiopians are people of fairness. We do not have an intention to hurt Egyptian brothers and sisters. Dear billionaire, war is a solution for dull minded people. Because nothing is gained from war, except loss of human lives. Do you think you maintain the 1959 water share by conducting war. I recommend you to read African history if you are part of it. You better participate in the reafforestation programme involving billion of plants around the Blue Nile Basin in order to obtain your share, or fill your belly, which requires Ethiopia’s will.

  8. Whatever your army is the strongest in the region, if you start war, Egypt will keep silent forever when we add poison at the source of the blue nile, which is at our hand. Then, we will see how your strong army protect you. We, Ethiopians, no need to fire and waste a single shot. I assure you, you will see it and experience it when the time comes.

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