Ethiopian military chief General Birhanu Jula on Saturday accused Egypt of working to weaken Ethiopia. The General was addressing a book launching ceremony in Harar city.
Calling Egypt “historical enemy of Ethiopia”, the military chief claimed that Egypt had always been obstructing Ethiopian efforts to gain access to sea. He accused Egyptian government of creating anti Ethiopia groups in Ethiopia. He went one to allege that Egypt provided weapons to a party during war in northern Ethiopia.
General Jula on Thursday levelled similar allegations against Egypt when he addressed the founding ceremony of Ethiopian military’ eastern command in Jigjiga city. He accused Somalia and Egypt of colluding to destabilized eastern Ethiopia.
Egypt and Ethiopia have been at loggerheads for years over Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) being built by Ethiopia over river Nile.
Last month, Egypt delivered weapons to the government of Somalia. Egypt and Somalia reached a defense pact last month reportedly. Somalia is building new regional alliances with Eritrea, Egypt, Turkey and Djibouti to stop Ethiopia from implementing a controversial Memorandum of Understanding signed by Ethiopia and Somaliland in January this year.
Growing Egyptian military influence in Somalia, Ethiopia’s neighbor, is set to raise regional tensions involving Ethiopia Somalia and Egypt.
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