As Ethiopia raced to complete work on the largest dam in Africa last year, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed his country will not stand to lose “one drop of water” from the Nile River that has been its lifeblood for millennia.
As Ethiopia readies to finish work on the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, el-Sisi has apparently ruled out direct military intervention. Still, many in Ethiopia fear Egypt has a covert hand in the civil turmoil that is roiling their country. The battle for the Nile between Egypt and Ethiopia has moved from veiled military threats to information warfare. Facebook flagged Egypt, asserting that second parties based in Egypt believed to be paid by Egypt are spreading misinformation to turn Ethiopian public opinion against the government.
Facebook has also flagged Ethiopia for its own information campaign. But it said Ethiopia’s social media campaign was aimed at influencing the domestic audience in Ethiopia to support the dam.
Egypt also targeted Sudan, where the Nile flows before moving on into the delta that feeds Egypt and generates electricity. The info war by Egyptian sources targeting Sudan warned the dam could crack and flood their homes and farmland, according to Facebook.
The latest crisis has been brewing for 10 years. That’s when Ethiopia broke ground on the nearly $5 billion building project. It will be the largest dam on the African continent and the seventh largest in the world.
The hydroelectric dam will double Ethiopia’s electricity output, enough to power itself and its neighbors, including Egypt.
The dam project is designed to catapult Ethiopia as a middle-income country to make it one of the continent’s economic giants. Egypt has lobbied the international community to pressure Ethiopia to slow down the dam completion. But the United Nations Security Council has refused to take a stand. Despite the refusal of the World Bank and others to lend it money, Ethiopia has raised nearly $5 billion from its people.
And for Ethiopia, the opportunities the dam presents are significant.
Only 47% of the Ethiopian population has access to electricity, and the new dam will double that figure. The 6,000 megawatts of electricity produced by the new dam are expected to raise $1 billion in annual income from electricity exports to neighboring countries.
Samson Mulugeta is a former Johannesburg bureau chief for New York Newsday and has reported from more than 50 conflict zones in Africa and Asia.
