Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki Visited Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Eritrean President did not remark about his visit to Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Eritrean President and Ethiopian Prime Minister along with members of Eritrean delegation and Ethiopian officials (Photo : OPM)

Borkena, October 15, 2020 

Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki along with his entourage visited on Tuesday this week the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a project that pushed Egypt to the brink of resorting to war against Ethiopia. 

The president did not make any official remarks about his visit to GERD. When he met with the Egyptian president President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Al-Ittihadiya Palace in early July 2020, the latter expressed “keenness to promote relations and deepen strategic cooperation with Eritrea in all fields,” as reported by the State Information Service of Egypt. Isaias, on his part, expressed that “the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea region currently witness successive challenges and escalating foreign interference.”  The Issue of the Renaissance Dam was among the topics discussed between the two leaders. 

The reason why Isaias did not remark about his visit to the GERD project has probably something to do with the desire to maintain neutrality on the issue as he has been discussing the matter with Sudanese and Egyptian authorities. 

Eritrean Minister of Information, Yemane G. Meskel, who was tweeting updates about President Isaias to different projects in Ethiopia, did not tweet the visit to GERD either. He rather retweeted Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s twitter message: “Much more awaits us. Success is inevitable. But marked progress is key. Pleased to have visited the GERD with President Isaias.” 

As PM Abiy noted, the project is nowhere near completion. The latest update from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy indicated that the GERD project is only at 76.3 percent. 

President Isaias Afeworki’s latest visit to Ethiopia, which he completed on Thursday in the morning, was unique from his previous visit in that Abiy took him and his presidential delegate to a tour of military facilities including the Ethiopian Air Force and to the restructured Defense Engineering facility. 

Politicized Ethiopian’s raised eyebrows as to why Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had to invite the Eritrean president to military facilities.