1. Ethiopia is a country of 110 million people
2. 60% of its population live without electricity
3. Only 24% of Primary schools have access to electricity
4. Only 30 % of health clinics have access to electricity
5. 6-8 million people need emergency relief food aid every year
6. The Nile originates from Ethiopia and Ethiopia contributes over 80 % of the Nile water
7. Benefiting from colonial treaty to which Ethiopia was not a party to
Egypt gets 75% and Sudan 25% however, Ethiopia gets 0% of the Nile water
8. Ethiopia never subscribed to the colonial treaty of 1929 & 1959 that denies her any share in the Nile water
9. In 1999 Ethiopia and nine upstream countries launched the Nile Basin Initiative for equitable share of the Nile water
10. In good-faith Ethiopia has consistently invited Egypt and Sudan to jointly negotiate a fair and just agreement that could equally benefit all the parties, including the timelines of the reservoir filling.
11. Egypt left the good-faith negotiation and directly embarked on extensive diplomatic campaign armed with false claims to isolate Ethiopia and deny her international financial support
12. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is fully funded by popular Ethiopian peoples’ support
13. 76% of the Dam is completed
14. Ethiopia has declared that she is filling the GERD starting from July 2020. According to the article IV and chapter II of the international law for users of transboundary rivers, each Basin State is entitled, within its territory, to use a reasonable and equitable share of the beneficial uses of the waters of an international river.
15. Ethiopia has no intention to deny down-stream countries any water
16. United States accepted to be an observer, instead of playing a role of an honest broker switched her role to a negotiator and sided with Egypt acting through Mr. Steve Mnuchin Secretary of Finance has been trying to force Ethiopia sign a harmful agreement.
17. Ethiopia has categorically refused to sign a harmful agreement. Ethiopia is upholding the article IV and chapter II of international law for users of transboundary rivers, which declares equitable use of water by all basin states.
18. Article V of the law clearly explains the factors considered to determine an equitable and reasonable share of water of transboundary river. These are factors such as geographical extent of the drainage area in the territory of the basin state, the amount of water contributed by a basin state, historical and/or existing water utilization, and economic and social need of each basin are considered for determining country’s water use allocation.
19. Ethiopians back home and in the Diaspora stand in solidarity with Ethiopia on this issue
20. We call on all Ethiopians to stand in solidarity with Ethiopia at this critical time
21. We call on all World communities to stand with peaceful Ethiopia and country which is not a threat to any neighboring country
22. We request the US Government, Trump administration to cease and desist to side with Egypt and threat Ethiopia to sign a harmful agreement