The Egyptian opposition “Batel” campaign sent a message to commanders and officers of the Egyptian army, calling upon them to move to face what it described as the disasters caused by the coup leader Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the last of which was the neglect of Nile waters, as well as the waiver of the Egyptian islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia, and 40 km. from the Egyptian maritime borders to Greece and Cyprus.
Batel (void) opposition campaign said in a statement titled “Our message to commanders and officers of Egypt.. After the Nile has been lost, move before Egypt is also lost”., which today is threatened in its lifeline, after the Ethiopian Foreign Minister announced today, that the Nile River has become an Ethiopian lake with a humiliating rhetoric which literally said, “The Nile is flowing as it was before, it has become a lake that we use for development, and in fact the water will not flow into the river again .. the Nile is ours.”
Everyone knows that Egypt is being targeted, but we must ask today who is targeting it?
Ethiopia’s foreign minister on Wednesday outraged Egyptians with a hubristic tweet claiming, “The Nile is Ours”, one week after it took a notable step in completing its controversial upstream Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam [GERD] project. Gedu Andargachew tweet read: “Congratulations! It was the Nile River and the river became a lake. It will no longer flow into the river. Ethiopia will have all the development it wants from it. In fact the Nile is ours!”
The campaign indicated that Sisi unilaterally signed the Declaration of Principles in 2015, which enabled Ethiopia to start building the dam and request international funding based not only on the absence of the previous rejection of the downstream countries, in addition to Egypt’s recognition that Ethiopia has the right to build the dam in accordance with this declaration.
Batel added: “Al-Sisi defended the agreement until 2019, saying: There is no cause for concern, Egypt will not lose a single drop of water .. I never let you lose before? and you all know the fate of any party, official or citizen who dares to discuss the directions of the regime otherwise he will be accused of being a traitor, and thus Egypt lost all the immunity with which it was entrenched, whether in the presence of political forces, civil organizations or independents who can serve the country or even benefit the negotiator by using them as a pressure card. Furthermore, Egypt no longer has a parliament that can discuss or reject the government’s decisions, but it has become a tool in the hands of Sisi alone.
“Even the Egyptian army did not escape Sisi, as he has systematically targeted it by removing many professional and national commanders from service over the past years while empowering others who see that short-term financial benefits are more important than Egypt’s national security,” Batal campaign said.
The opposition campaign continued: “Let us remind you, officers and commanders, that Egypt has voluntarily lost upon orders of Sisi, the islands of Tiran and Sanafir in favor of Saudi Arabia. And in all these catastrophies, the army had no declared position.“
Batel added, “The question is directed to you today, officers and commanders of the Egyptian armed forces: Do you accept that the lifeline of Egypt be lost and the nation be threatened in its existence? Do you accept that the Nile become an Ethiopian lake as Ethiopian FM declared?”
She stressed that “the loyalty and affiliation must be for Egypt and not for a person, so how would you accept that your names be associated over Egypt’s long history with this series of humiliating disasters?”, adding: “The danger threatening Egypt today comes from the south, and that any attempt to push you into our western borders is just an attempt by the same person to finish off the last lines of defense, which is you, the commanders, officers, and soldiers of Egypt.
Tensions have increased between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan after Ethiopia – which has rejected signing a binding agreement regarding the use of the Nile’s waters – unilaterally started to fill the reservoir of the GERD last week. The unregulated filling of the GERD’s reservoir could potentially cut off essential water supplies to Sudan and Egypt, causing drought and famine. Egypt has been dependent on the Nile’s water for thousands of years and 85 percent of the water reaching it originates from the Blue Nile tributary, where Ethiopia has constructed the GERD.
