Friday, March 03, 2017

13 die in failed assault on Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam

(Mar 03, 2017, (Global Construction Review))--Zadig Abraha, Ethiopia’s minister for government communications, said on 1 March the assault was launched by 20 members of the Benishangul Gumez People’s Liberation Movement, but that they were intercepted before they could reach the site of the Nile dam, which is nearing completion near the Sudan border.

He added that seven assailants who fled to Sudanese territory were later apprehended by that country’s security forces and delivered to the Ethiopian authorities, reports Ethiopia’s state broadcaster, Fana.

Abraha pointed the finger at Eritrea, Ethiopia’s arch-enemy, as the organiser of the attack, however other officials have claimed in the past that the Egyptian government was financing armed groups on its territory and encouraging them to sabotage the project.

Egypt has long made its opposition to the GERD clear, on the grounds that it will reduce water flow in the river. The Blue Nile, which begins in the Ethiopian highlands, is the source of 85% of the lower Nile’s water, which Egypt’s 80 million people depend on for drinking, industry and agriculture. Read more from Global Construction Review »

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