Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has approved a plan to halt nearly $130 million in US foreign assistance to Ethiopia to pressure Addis Ababa into reaching an agreement with Cairo and Khartoum on the management of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, State Department and congressional sources said.
A State Department official told Asharq Al-Awsat that an agreement between the three countries on the operation and filing of the dam is crucial for regional stability.
The US plan to stop assistance to Ethiopia comes after members of the Congress urged the Trump administration to take necessary measures against human rights violations and the clampdown on opposition figures in the African country.
Foreign Policy magazine reported Thursday that Pompeo has approved the plan to halt nearly $130 million in US foreign assistance to Ethiopia.
Programs that are on the chopping block include security assistance, counterterrorism and military education and training, anti-human trafficking programs, and broader development assistance funding, officials and congressional aides said.
The cuts would not impact US funding for emergency humanitarian relief, food assistance, or health programs aimed at addressing COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS, officials said.
The move is meant to address the standoff between Ethiopia and the other countries that rely on the Nile River downstream that have opposed the construction of the massive dam project.
“There’s still progress being made, we still see a viable path forward here,” said one US official. “The US role is to do everything it can to help facilitate an agreement between the three countries that balance their interests. At the end of the day it has to be an agreement that works for these three countries.”
The move is likely to face sharp pushback on Capitol Hill, according to Congressional aides familiar with the matter.
Some US officials have raised doubts about whether US funding cuts to Ethiopia could alter the country’s negotiating position, given the dam’s political and cultural significance.
