CAIRO: Egypt is committed to using diplomacy to resolve a crisis with Ethiopia over its construction of a giant hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said on Saturday, addressing stalled talks on the issue.
The talks were halted once again on Wednesday, this time only about a fortnight before the expected start-up of the $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is being built near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan and is the centerpiece in its bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter.
Cairo said on Friday it had called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene to restart the talks.
“When we moved to the Security Council... that was (because) we are always keen to take the diplomatic and political path until its end,” El-Sisi said in a speech at an air force base.
“We need to move strongly toward concluding the negotiations and reach an agreement... and solutions that achieve the interest of all,” he said.
Egypt, which is almost entirely dependent on the Nile for its fresh water supplies, is anxious to secure a legally binding deal that would guarantee minimum flows and a mechanism for resolving disputes before the dam starts operating.
The latest talks, which had started on June 9 over video conference, followed a previous round of negotiations in Washington, which ended without agreement in February.
On Saturday, El-Sisi recalled that in a speech he gave to the Ethiopian parliament five years ago he said that while Egypt respects Ethiopians’ need for development they also should respect its needs for “life.”
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Egypt is committed to a diplomatic solution to Ethiopia’s dam crisis: El-Sisi
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Egypt is committed to a diplomatic solution to Ethiopia’s dam crisis: El-Sisi
- The talks were halted once again on Wednesday, this time only about a fortnight before the expected start-up of the $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
- Egypt, which is almost entirely dependent on the Nile for its fresh water supplies, is anxious to secure a legally binding deal
Israel bars some aid workers from Gaza as groups face suspension
- NGOs ordered to cease operations unless they give employee details to Israel
- MSF and others denied entry, impacting key medical services in Gaza
GENEVA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israel said on Thursday it had barred entry to Gaza of foreign medical and humanitarian staff whose organizations were ordered to cease operations unless they register employee details with Israeli authorities and meet other new rules.
Fearing a renewed humanitarian crisis if medical and aid services can suddenly no longer access war-shattered Gaza, some of the 37 international nongovernmental organizations that were ordered to halt work are weighing whether to submit staff names to Israeli authorities, two aid sources told Reuters.
Three of the aid groups said their foreign staff were told by Israeli authorities this week they could not enter Gaza.
Israel’s diaspora ministry, which manages the registration process, says the measures are meant to prevent diversions of aid by Palestinian armed groups. NGOs say sharing staff details poses too much of a risk, pointing to the hundreds of aid workers who were killed or injured during the two-year Gaza war.
Israel has shared little evidence of aid being diverted in the Palestinian enclave, an allegation that was disputed in a US government analysis.
The diaspora ministry said that while the NGOs had been granted 60 days to conclude operations, “the entry of foreign personnel into Gaza is not approved.” It said international staff with “approved organizations” including the United Nations could continue work as usual.
Three prominent global NGOs — Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Medecins du Monde Suisse and the Danish Refugee Council — said their international staff were refused entry to Gaza this week. Foreign aid staff had generally been permitted to rotate in and out of Gaza since the start of the war.
“If we don’t have somebody in a key position, such as the emergency coordinator in charge of operations, then we either have to compensate, or we have a gap” in aid service, said Anna Halford, Gaza emergency coordinator at MSF.
'System breaks down'
Israel’s government said some 23 aid groups had agreed to the new registration rules, meaning humanitarian goods will continue to get into Gaza.
But a UN-led coordination body has said the international groups that have registered could meet only a fraction of the required humanitarian response in the devastated Gaza Strip, where homelessness and hunger remain rife.
Some of the 37 banned groups operate specialized services like field hospitals, aid officials say. MSF bolsters six Gaza health ministry hospitals and runs two field hospitals. The Medicos del Mundo NGO screens Gaza residents for malnutrition and provides mental health services.
“Without nutritional staff doing the screening and primary health care centers doing the therapeutic feeding and referral of patients with severe malnutrition to in-patient care — the whole system breaks down,” an aid source told Reuters.
Fearing the loss of those essential services for Gaza’s two million residents, some aid groups are considering reversing course and agreeing to the new registration rules.
“The essence of the debate (for aid groups) is how to safeguard their principles, humanitarian standards, and the safety of the local staff while being able to continue the services,” a senior aid source said.
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry unit that controls access to Gaza, said the NGOs’ conduct “raises suspicion regarding the parties with whom they operate” in Gaza, but they remained free to register with the diaspora ministry.
'Everything is missing'
Samira Al-Ashqar, 40, who fled her Beit Lahia home to Al-Ansar camp in north Gaza with her disabled husband and nine others during the war, depends on Oxfam — one of the aid groups facing an Israeli ban — for food and financial support.
“Now, after the war, everything is missing, and things have become dire ... If these institutions were to stop, the people of Gaza would face complete devastation,” Al-Ashqar said.
Mohamed Abu Selmia, head of Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, told Reuters the banning of groups like MSF could affect hundreds of thousands of people.
“The Israeli occupation’s decision comes at a time of unprecedented deterioration in health conditions. We suffer acute shortages of medication that reach 100 percent in some areas, and 55 percent overall,” he said.
MSF said an Israeli ban could also mean that foreign aid groups would no longer be able to pay local staff in Gaza because Israel could block bank transfers.
Fearing a renewed humanitarian crisis if medical and aid services can suddenly no longer access war-shattered Gaza, some of the 37 international nongovernmental organizations that were ordered to halt work are weighing whether to submit staff names to Israeli authorities, two aid sources told Reuters.
Three of the aid groups said their foreign staff were told by Israeli authorities this week they could not enter Gaza.
Israel’s diaspora ministry, which manages the registration process, says the measures are meant to prevent diversions of aid by Palestinian armed groups. NGOs say sharing staff details poses too much of a risk, pointing to the hundreds of aid workers who were killed or injured during the two-year Gaza war.
Israel has shared little evidence of aid being diverted in the Palestinian enclave, an allegation that was disputed in a US government analysis.
The diaspora ministry said that while the NGOs had been granted 60 days to conclude operations, “the entry of foreign personnel into Gaza is not approved.” It said international staff with “approved organizations” including the United Nations could continue work as usual.
Three prominent global NGOs — Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Medecins du Monde Suisse and the Danish Refugee Council — said their international staff were refused entry to Gaza this week. Foreign aid staff had generally been permitted to rotate in and out of Gaza since the start of the war.
“If we don’t have somebody in a key position, such as the emergency coordinator in charge of operations, then we either have to compensate, or we have a gap” in aid service, said Anna Halford, Gaza emergency coordinator at MSF.
'System breaks down'
Israel’s government said some 23 aid groups had agreed to the new registration rules, meaning humanitarian goods will continue to get into Gaza.
But a UN-led coordination body has said the international groups that have registered could meet only a fraction of the required humanitarian response in the devastated Gaza Strip, where homelessness and hunger remain rife.
Some of the 37 banned groups operate specialized services like field hospitals, aid officials say. MSF bolsters six Gaza health ministry hospitals and runs two field hospitals. The Medicos del Mundo NGO screens Gaza residents for malnutrition and provides mental health services.
“Without nutritional staff doing the screening and primary health care centers doing the therapeutic feeding and referral of patients with severe malnutrition to in-patient care — the whole system breaks down,” an aid source told Reuters.
Fearing the loss of those essential services for Gaza’s two million residents, some aid groups are considering reversing course and agreeing to the new registration rules.
“The essence of the debate (for aid groups) is how to safeguard their principles, humanitarian standards, and the safety of the local staff while being able to continue the services,” a senior aid source said.
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry unit that controls access to Gaza, said the NGOs’ conduct “raises suspicion regarding the parties with whom they operate” in Gaza, but they remained free to register with the diaspora ministry.
'Everything is missing'
Samira Al-Ashqar, 40, who fled her Beit Lahia home to Al-Ansar camp in north Gaza with her disabled husband and nine others during the war, depends on Oxfam — one of the aid groups facing an Israeli ban — for food and financial support.
“Now, after the war, everything is missing, and things have become dire ... If these institutions were to stop, the people of Gaza would face complete devastation,” Al-Ashqar said.
Mohamed Abu Selmia, head of Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, told Reuters the banning of groups like MSF could affect hundreds of thousands of people.
“The Israeli occupation’s decision comes at a time of unprecedented deterioration in health conditions. We suffer acute shortages of medication that reach 100 percent in some areas, and 55 percent overall,” he said.
MSF said an Israeli ban could also mean that foreign aid groups would no longer be able to pay local staff in Gaza because Israel could block bank transfers.
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