(JT) A top Egyptian newspaper "Almasry Alyoum" reported that Egypt considers ethnic division in Ethiopia important to securing its Nile River domination and the Egyptian government is also planning to use multi-million dollar investment projects in Ethiopia as economic leverage to stop future large-scale Ethiopian projects.

The report comes in a time when Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s state-run ETV media paraded numerous Egyptian investment ventures and deals that could provide Egypt access to delicate sectors of Ethiopian economy and infrastructure.  Historically, Egypt has supported radical religious organizations in Somalia and southern Ethiopia in order to create tension between Ethiopian Muslims and Christians. Egypt has also previously financed several ethnic-based separatist rebels in Ethiopia while it has sponsored Oromo and Ogaden human rights and community organizations in Cairo.

According to the Egyptian newspaper Almasry Alyoum, Egypt believes East African countries like Ethiopia are "ethnically divided, and thus incapable of launching huge economic projects that could undermine its (Egypt’s) share of the Nile resources." Observers say Egypt is counting on ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia while it is also trying to use its economic capital to enter and influence under-developed regions of Ethiopia using investments.

The Cairo government is reportedly attempting to delay a new Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) agreement and an NBI official said Egyptian investment is “an attempt to buy the Ethiopians off in order to continue to remain outside negotiations.” Several upstream African countries have been pushing for a new Nile agreement since the late 1990s. Ayman Shabaana, a political science Professor at Cairo University's Institute for African Studies praised Cairo’s new strategy and revealed that the Meles Zenawi government is planning to “shift its support to the Egyptian position in exchange for economic assistance and promises of investment.” An Egyptian hydropolitics expert Ashraf Allam added that Egypt’s new policy “might induce several upstream countries not to escalate the situation” inside NBI by Egypt bribing the countries  “in return for their stepping down in negotiations.”

Background

Ethiopia is the source of over 85 percent of the Nile resources, but it has been blocked from using its river for development by colonial treaties and by international funding institutions as well as by war threats from the US-funded Egyptian military.  Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, who has been President for nearly 30 years, has been supported by successive American governments. Western donor institutes have given tens of billions of dollars to Egypt while the US government alone has provided over 60 billion dollars of assistance to Egypt compared to less than 4 billion in American assistance to Ethiopia since 1950. The IMF and World Bank (WB) have historically rejected financial support to Ethiopia and other upstream countries for Nile projects. Recently, western NGOs have blocked funding for development projects along smaller Ethiopian rivers. Analysts say campaigns by western NGOs like International Rivers (IR) against Ethiopia have caused the Ethiopian government to seek alternative financial sources and pursue short-cuts to hydroprojects, often leading to deadly and costly construction errors.  

Over the last five decades, millions of Ethiopians have perished due to ethnic conflicts and famines in Ethiopia, one of the most fertile countries in Africa.