AFRICA - “War of the Nile” feared after failed Sharm El-Sheik Summit

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - "War of the Nile" is the headline in the Congolese newspaper "Le Potentiel," in an editorial commenting on the failure of the Summit in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, which was to conclude with a new agreement to regulate the management of the Nile waters (see Fides 15/4/2010).
The editorial emphasizes the fact that Egypt and Sudan base their right to exploit most of the waters of Africa's longest river on certain agreements between the colonial powers who had carved up Africa.
"It is understandable that sovereign countries like Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Eritrea dispute treaties signed by the British colonial power with Egypt and Sudan," said the editorial in the Congolese newspaper.
"Le Potentiel" recalls that the only treatment approved by all States interested in the exploitation of the Nile waters was signed in Tanzania in 1999 by member countries of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), which provides for the equitable sharing of water and the joint development of resources of the Nile, "with the prospect of bringing the social and economic development of approximately 300 million inhabitants of the region."
"The obstinacy of Egypt, that has dragged in Sudan, has been delaying from year to year for five years, the signing of a new framework for permanent cooperation, designed to replace the NBI," stresses the newspaper.
The uncertainty has kept donor countries and international financial institutions from providing the financing of planned development projects.
This has rekindled tensions between countries that see an opportunity for development in the Nile, on the one hand, and Egypt and Sudan who see the Nile as primarily a question of national security. For Cairo and Khartoum, to make concessions on this issue would mean betraying national interests.
If, as is considered likely by many, the referendum of 2011 leads to the secession of Southern Sudan, a new rule would be added that would call for the exploitation rights over the waters of the Nile. This means greater diplomatic efforts are needed to prevent a conflict that would have devastating consequences for Africa, and for the rest of the world. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 04/28/2010)