GERD, U.S. Meddling in African Sovereignty: Ethiopia Egypt conflict

This open letter is in response to a new effort on the part of United States, specifically U.S. President Donald J. Trump in meddling in the Ethiopia Egypt conflict over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile. While it is frequently described in terms of promoting “regional stability,” this intervention raises fundamental questions about sovereignty, legitimacy and power relations in Africa.

The Nile River runs through and is used by many countries, most prominently Egypt, which has historically held outsize political influence over waters of the Nile due to colonial-era agreements. The construction of the GERD by Ethiopia marks a potentially transformative shift in this balance: to allow upstream African countries to develop resources collectively while maintaining commitments not to cause significant harm.

The United States’ role in these events is not impartial. Washington has been a longtime strategic partner of Egypt, providing military support, diplomatic encouragement and political backing linked to larger Middle Eastern and security interests. When the United States acts as a mediator, it does so with these alliances already established. This is why many Ethiopians and Africans look at American mediation not as independent conflict resolution, but as an attempt to continue outside pressure in order to maintain the status quo.

For Ethiopia, U.S. intervention imperils a national project at the heart of its identity and aspirations for self-reliance, economic transformation and African agency. The GERD is financed domestically, constructed outside of foreign domination and negotiated on African-led platforms such as the African Union in particular. External intervention may well sabotage the processes and establish a precedence that will Western powers permission is sought for African development projects.

For Egypt, the ongoing dependence on U.S. diplomacy prolongs crucial internal reform in water management and perpetuates a discursive entitlement to a shared river. It internationalizes what is essentially a regional and continental issue instead of constructively engaging upstream countries in the continent through African platforms.

This letter is thus responding not just to a particular instance of American entanglement but to a troubling tendency: the sidelining of African solutions; the continued existence in international policy debates of assumption that belong with colonialism in the museum; and an effort to redefine African development as a security problem rather than addressing it for what it is. What follows is a clear repudiation of that approach, and an appeal instead for respect; respect for sovereignty, for African institutions and for the peoples whose futures are immediately on the line.

Dear Mr. President Trump,

Your letter dated January 16, 2024, addressed to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt concerning the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), has been noted. I write to you not as a representative of the Ethiopian government, but as a patriot of the nation that conceived, financed, and built the dam you now presume to mediate.

1. You Are Not Welcome Here
Your offer to “restart American mediation” is categorically declined. You are not the president of Ethiopia. You did not contribute a dime, an idea, or a single day of labor to the GERD. This dam was funded by the savings of Ethiopian farmers, the contributions of our global diaspora, and the collective will of 132 million people. It is not a bargaining chip for your Middle East alliances, nor a gift to Egypt in exchange for political favors. Ethiopia does not accept mediators who arrive with predetermined loyalties.

2. Your Falsehoods Amuse, They Do Not Impress
Your previous claim that the United States funded the GERD was not only demonstrably false, but deeply insulting to every Ethiopian who sacrificed to make this national project a reality. To Africa and the watching world, it was yet another example of your trademark disregard for truth—amusing, were it not so revealing of your disrespect for sovereignty. We built the GERD ourselves. We do not need your fictional financing, and we certainly do not need your fabricated mediation.

3. Egypt’s Water Crisis is of Its Own Making
Before Egypt lectures others on water security, it should address its own profound failures in water management. The High Aswan Dam loses more water to evaporation each year than the entire storage capacity of the GERD. Meanwhile, Egypt misallocates its scarce Nile water to sustain desert golf courses and vanity projects like Olympic cities in the oasis, while much of its population faces scarcity. Its jealousy of Ethiopia’s rise has driven it to hysteria, seeking to constrain Ethiopian development rather than manage its own waste and inefficiency.

4. The GERD Is an African Achievement, Not a Threat
The GERD is an Ethiopian project; it is a flagship of a rising Africa. Across the continent, people see it as a symbol of what is possible through self-reliance and vision. Egypt, however, sees Africa only when it needs something. The rest of the time, it identifies as an Arab nation, often looking down upon the continent it claims to belong to. This is precisely why Egypt refuses to allow the African Union, the rightful continental body, to mediate this matter. Instead, it runs to its “white masters” and Arab benefactors, spurning African solidarity in favor of foreign patronage.

5. Your “Regional Security” Narrative Is a Provocation and a Fiction
Framing the GERD as a “regional security issue” is a reckless provocation. This is a development project, not a weapon. Your implied threats of “military confrontation” are not only irresponsible but historically ignorant. Egypt knows better than to dare Ethiopia; history records not one, but seventeen defeats of Egyptian armies by Ethiopian forces. We know each other well. Your exaggeration of war is a diplomatic ploy, not a reflection of reality.

6. You Have No Moral or Diplomatic Standing Here
Your administration’s previous mediation attempt in 2020 was a biased failure. You openly sided with Egypt, issued ultimatums, and spread falsehoods about financing—a pattern that laid bare your hostility to Ethiopia’s progress. You invoke “international law,” yet your record reflects a consistent disregard for multilateral norms unless they serve your interests.

7. The Only Legitimate Forum Is the African Union
This matter belongs to Africa. The mediation you propose has only one rightful venue, which is the African Union,  Headquartered in Addis Ababa. It must involve all Nile Basin nations in a conversation led by Africans, for Africans. The continued global policing by Washington, and of course yourself, Mr. Trump, must stay out. Africa does not need external saviours; it requires respect for its institutions, and its right to govern and solve its own challenges.

8. A Final Word to Africa
To my fellow Africans: the GERD is our Ethiopian symbol, but moreso an African symbol. It represents a continent that can build, achieve, and lead. We must stand together in solidarity ,to denounce any disrespect toward the African Union and reject all external interference in our affairs. This is not only Ethiopia’s prize, but Africa’s pride.

We did not build the GERD to please you, Mr. Trump, nor for that matter to appease Washington policing diplomats, nor to fear you, or to negotiate its existence with you. We built it because it is our sovereign right and you have no right to dictate what we do to govern ourselves, when you have your own domestic problems right in your own backyard.

Leave this matter to its rightful owners: the people of Africa.

Stay out of African affairs and stay out of Africa.

Signed,
Yuri Tadesse
Washington, DC–based Lobbyist and Investment Banker
Speaking on behalf of the Sovereign People of Ethiopia

For more info please contact Yuri at here.