Russian Satellite Imagery Can End The Nile River Dispute Between Ethiopia, Sudan, & Egypt

It’s only through consensual agreement over scientific-technical data shared by a neutral third party like Russia that all parties can finally put this artificially manufactured dispute behind them.

Ethiopian Ambassador to Russia Alemayehu Tegenu told Russian media on Sunday that Addis is considering taking up Moscow on its offer to provide satellite imagery for ending the Nile River dispute between his country, Sudan, and Egypt. His Excellency was quoted as saying the following:

“The Russian side always proposes the technical assistance. Ethiopia welcomes [it]. The technical assistance is very important, if the need arises, we can approach [Moscow with such request]. I know about this proposal, I think this is well-acceptable.”

He also briefly commented on those two downstream countries’ publicly expressed concerns that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which is being exploited as a false pretext by them to meddle in Ethiopia’s affairs, will supposedly decrease their share of the Nile’s water resources:

“What is very interesting here is that we completed the filling [of the dam] and it didn't impact on the downstream countries. Rather, there was a very big flooding in Sudan.”

Readers should remember that Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in October 2019 during the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi that President Vladimir Putin offered to mediate this dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt.

It therefore makes sense that Moscow would proposing sharing satellite imagery of the Nile River’s water levels in order to provide objective evidence of whether or not Cairo and Khartoum’s concerns are legitimate.

Unlike the US which has also sought to mediate this sensitive issue, Russia enjoys excellent relations with all three parties to the dispute. Ethiopia is its oldest partner on the continent, Egypt is a Soviet-era one with whom relations have recently started improving, while Sudan is a much newer partner.

Furthermore, the US is jointly waging the TPLF-driven Hybrid War of Terror on Ethiopia together with Egypt, which recently re-erupted late last month. Cairo has also conspired to manipulate its junior Sudanese partner into provoking a war with its southern neighbor in order to support the US’ goals.

It therefore follows that the US is an indirect participant to the dispute after tacitly taking its Egyptian ally’s side over Ethiopia’s in its latest attempt to divide and rule Africa. Russia, by contrast, is indisputably neutral and actively works against all such divide-and-rule plots across the world.

This background context explains the importance of Ambassador Alemayehu publicly countenancing taking his hosts up on their offer to share satellite imagery in order to peacefully end this dispute once and for all since Egypt and Sudan wouldn’t ever suspect Moscow of doctoring those photographs.

It’s only through consensual agreement over scientific-technical data shared by a neutral third party like Russia that all parties can finally put this artificially manufactured dispute behind them. It’s therefore hoped that progress will made on this proposal in order to restore trust between those three countries.