Egypt Asks Nigeria’s Buhari to Mediate Ethiopia Dam Dispute, Ignores Russia’s Putin offer

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By Alonso Soto

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Nigeria’s vice president said the speaker of Egypt’s parliament asked the West African nation’s leader, Muhammadu Buhari, to help mediate a dispute with Ethiopia over a multibillion dollar Nile River dam.

Last week, Egypt and Ethiopia agreed to resume talks to resolve a dispute over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is set to be Africa’s biggest hydropower project when completed. Cairo says the dam could threaten its water supply.

Egyptian Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal Sayed Hamad “conveyed the request for President Buhari to mediate on the issue between Egypt and Ethiopia,” Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said on his Twitter account.

Similarly, the Honourable Speaker Dr. Ali Abdel-Aal Sayed Hamad conveyed the request for President Buhari to mediate on the issue between Egypt and Ethiopia over the building of the Renaissance Dam project on the Blue Nile River.
— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) October 29, 2019

Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to expand Moscow’s clout in Africa by touting military aid and economic projects Thursday at the first-ever Russia-Africa summit. He even offered to help mediate a growing water dispute between two of the continent’s largest powers, Egypt and Ethiopia.

The two-day summit in the Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi underlined Russia’s renewed bid for influence in resource-rich Africa and was attended by the leaders of 43 of Africa’s 54 countries.

As African leaders roamed through an expo center displaying Russian military hardware, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin addressed the contentious dam issue with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in separate meetings on the sidelines of the summit.

Peskov didn’t say whether Egypt and Ethiopia accepted Putin’s mediation offer — and offer that the United States also extended in recent days after talks on the dam collapsed this month.

Some pro-government media in Egypt have cast the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as a national security threat that could affect Egypt’s share of water from the Nile River and could warrant military action.

Putin hailed the Russia-Africa summit as historic.

“Summing up its results, we can immediately say that this event really opened a new page in relations between Russia and the states of the African continent,” Putin said in closing the summit.

Putin emphasized that developing stronger ties with the continent ranks among Russia’s top foreign policy priorities, noting that African nations have emerged as “one of important pillars of the multi-polar world.”

Russia’s annual trade with African nations has doubled in the last five years to exceed $20 billion and Putin voiced confidence that it could double again “as a minimum” in the next four or five years. — (AP)

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union provided generous economic and military aid to many African countries amid its global rivalry with the United States. Moscow’s influence withered after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia is now still far behind the West and China in trade and investment in Africa, but it has capitalized on Soviet-era ties to widen its role in the continent’s affairs.

The Russian president emphasized Thursday that Russia and African nations should expand their cooperation in combating extremism, including exchanging information between their security agencies.

Russia is Africa’s largest arms supplier, and Putin noted that Russia now has military cooperation agreements with more than 30 African nations. He added that Moscow could expand its training of military and security personnel from African nations.

“We hope that … you will help us, in particular, to build up our armed forces,” said Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of Sudan’s transitional Sovereign Council, according to a Kremlin account of his meeting with Putin.

The president of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, agreed to renew a lapsed military cooperation agreement with Russia that is expected to lead to more direct procurement of military equipment, President Muhammadu Buhari’s office said. —

Naija247news
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Naija247news is an investigative news platform that tracks news on Nigerian Economy, Business, Politics, Financial and Africa and Global Economy.

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