This week, the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) clarified that it will not abandon its neutrality on the Nile.
Ethiopia and Egypt have been in a war of words over the multibillion-dollar hydro dam that Addis Ababa is putting up along River Nile.
According to the Foreign Minister of Somalia, Ahmed Isse Awad, his country’s neutrality could play a critical role in mediating the differences between Ethiopia and Egypt.
However, his comments raised a few eyebrows in Cairo and Addis Ababa. Both Ethiopia and Egypt never took the comments by FM Awad kindly.
The relationship between the Horn of Africa country and its fellow members of the Arab League now appears to be under severe pressure.
The differences between Egypt and Ethiopia started seven years ago. At the time, Ethiopia had just announced that it would raise $4.5 billion internally to build the hydro dam.
Building the hydro dam offers Ethiopia several benefits. Mostly, this project helps it to produce 6.4MW of power that it can then add to its grid.
When completed, the new hydro dam would be the largest hydropower site in the continent. It would produce enough electricity for all the 110 million Ethiopians in the country.
Egyptians believe that the project, which is called Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) would divert 27 billion cubic meters of water from River Nile, which is its biggest source of fresh water.
Somalia is in a quandary. Either, it could side with Egypt, which has been its ally historically in the Arab League. Ethiopia, though, is the country’s newest bosom buddy.