Economic Co-Operation Between African States Will Bring Unity And Counter Negative Influences:
the case of Ethiopia, Sudan and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam ( GERD)
excerpts from an interview by Addis Asefa of Talk to OBN Future Africa and former Sudanese Diplomat, Mekki Elmograbi.
“Africa should support GERD”
“GERD is an African development portal.Africans need GERD because Africans need development. And development cannot be achieved easily in this world these days.You need to fight for development.Because the world is divided and the big powers want to deprive African nations from their very rights to develop their countries and to have energy and to have their resources used for the sake of their countries.”
on the longstanding friendship between Ethiopia and Sudan, with Pres. Abiy Ahmed having played a key role in negotiating the Juba Peace Agreement between the military and civilian wings of the new Sudan government in 2020, now despite Sudan having been removed by Washington from the sponsor of terrorism list, still finances are being withheld. Professor Mekki Elmograbi says that economic integration between Ethiopia and Sudan, rather than just political and security co-operation,…..
“so when Sudan missed the way of economic integration [with Ethiopia] , this opened the doors of international intervention, regional intervention, neighbour influence, Egypt`s influence, all this happening to Sudan, or happening to African countries , because the focus is not economic. And this brings me back to my point , I think the best recipe is not just to think whom to blame and to put the blame on either the military side or the civilian side , I think we as Africans, when we miss the way of economic integration with each other, this will open the door of international influence or other sides influence on our policies.”
on the supposed neutrality that the UN Security Council has regarding the regional disputes caused by the second filling of GERD:
“…but if you ask me about the real situation, is that they [Western powers] are still behind the problem and they are still pushing the campaign, and pushing things against the unity of Ethiopia and the unity of Sudan”
on the demands by the UN to open another humanitarian corridor to get access to the people in Tigray:
” What is happening in Ethiopia now is , regarding the humanitarian crisis in the conflict area in the north of Ethiopia and the claims of the United Nations to open humanitarian corridors and others, I can say that whenever and wherever there is a humanitarian crisis there is a Western intervention that is a united intervention to directly break the unity of African countries.
If you just google the international humanitarian ngo`s and African conflicts you will find a lot of articles written on that.They use the humanitarian issues to prolong the conflict. So their approach to what is happening in Tigray is not for the sake of Tigray people, it is not for the sake of the human beings.They want to use the crisis to break the unity of Ethiopia.
United Nations agencies and the West is behind them [ngo`s] and the spearhead of all these campaigns is the United States of America itself. It is always behind all those players. The same happened for Sudan in the Darfur crisis.It started with maximizing the humanitarian crisis . Yes, there was a real humanitarian crisis but they maximized that humanitarian crisis and they build a world, a republic of refugees here and there dominated [under the authority] directly by the United Nations and not by the country itself.
And that happened in Darfur region and unfortunately reproduced in Chad and others. And then the issue of ICC [International Crisis Committee]came again and accused the Sudanese government and others. All these things not for the sake of Sudanese people, the sake even of the refugees, or the civilians, all these things led to the change that happened in Sudan. Yes it was revolution but this was not the first revolution for Sudan and it will not be the last revolution for Sudan. Sudan did not take the track of democratic transformation and represent the will of Sudanese people clearly and get out of the Western influence and other influence in the region.
A lot of things happening now and a lot of them dangerous and what I see about the conspiracy against Ethiopia now, this is what I have seen in all African countries.A media led campaign supported by internal led humanitarian ngo`s and covered by United Nation`s agencies and Western governments and especially the United States of America.
Still if we just look at this negative side of the problem we can do something on the positive side of the issue. So we need to give some time to us, as African countries and African nations to think deeply about our problems and to establish and to create African solutions to African problems.
Source: OBN Oromiyaa [ Oromia Broadcasting Network]
TALK TO OBN| Future Africa| Mekki Elmograbi Sudanese Former Diplomat and Press Writer.
8 August 2021