Gerd: Ethiopia has finished building mega-dam, Abiy Ahmed says
US President Donald Trump said in 2020 that Egypt had threatened to "blow up" the dam - officially known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd). In a conciliatory move, Abiy said that both Egypt and Sudan would be invited to its official inauguration in September. "We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water," he said. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Sudan's military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met earlier this week and "stressed their rejection of any unilateral measures in the Blue Nile Basin", AFP news agency reports.More than a mile long and 145m high, the dam is on the Blue Nile tributary in the northern Ethiopia highlands, from where 85% of the Nile's waters flow.Ethiopia wants the dam to produce desperately needed electricity, as the majority of its population - about 60% - have no supply.Egypt relies on the River Nile for nearly all of its fresh water, and fears that the flow of water could be disrupted. It has argued that just a 2% reduction in the amount of water it gets from the Nile could result in the loss of 200,000 acres of irrigated land.Sudan is also heavily reliant on water from the Nile, and shares Egypt's concerns.Abiy said Ethiopia was "willing to engage constructively" with the two countries. However, previous talks have failed to resolve differences.
More about the Ethiopian dam from the BBC:
Why is Egypt worried about Ethiopia's dam on the Nile?Nile Dam row: Egypt and Ethiopia generate heat but no powerRiver Nile dam: Why Ethiopia can't stop it being filled
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
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Times
3 hours ago
- Times
The hidden history of slavery in the Islamic world
Beshir Agha was born in Abyssinia in 1655, seized by slave traders, castrated as a boy and sold for 30 piastres. When he died in 1746 he left a fortune of 30 million piastres, 800 jewel-studded watches and 160 horses. When he was a slave to the Ottoman governor of Egypt, he received an education. He was clearly gifted; he soon found a berth at the Topkapi Palace, the main residence of the Ottoman sultan. There he proved an adept functionary, particularly good at organising lavish entertainments, and a skilful palace politician, rising through the ranks to serve as chief harem eunuch to two sultans. Beshir is one of the many fascinating characters in Captives and Companions, Justin Marozzi's history of slavery in the Islamic world. Marozzi starts his account in the 7th century, during the life of Muhammad. Marozzi quotes one of the most famous Quranic pronouncements on slavery, one that treats inequality between master and slave as a fact of life: 'Allah has favoured some of you over others in provision.' Allah had evidently favoured the Prophet Muhammad, whose tastes were ecumenical — his 70 slaves included Copts, Syrians, Persians and Ethiopians. The sexual exploitation of female slaves by their male owners is permissible too, counsels the Quran. This furnished the Ottoman sultans with an alibi for their harem of enslaved concubines — and in our time armed Islamic State with a sanction for the rape and enslavement of Yazidi women in northern Iraq. As Marozzi rightly argues in this history of slavery in the Islamic world, it is disingenuous to deny the Islamic State its Islamic character, as Barack Obama once attempted. These are not secular fanatics but Muslim fundamentalists. For centuries Quranic justifications were invoked to defend slavery as a cultural tradition — as if it were no more troubling than morris dancing. Small wonder, then, that Muslim nations were among the last to abolish it — Saudi Arabia in 1962, Oman in 1970, Mauritania in 1981. But the practice persists. In Saudi Arabia, according to the Global Slavery Index, there are 740,000 people living in modern slavery. Marozzi opens his book in the Kayes region of western Mali, where hereditary slavery persists, as does the right of masters to rape the wives and daughters of their slaves. Despite its long history and continued presence, however, slavery in the Islamic world remains woefully underresearched. Western parochialism bears some blame; James Walvin's A Short History of Slavery, for example, devotes 201 of its 235 pages to the Atlantic trade. But so does western timidity. The historian Bernard Lewis once lamented that, thanks to contemporary sensibilities, it had become 'professionally hazardous' for bright young things to probe slavery in Muslim societies. • Read more of the latest religion news, views and analysis. Thankfully Marozzi is unencumbered by such PC pretensions. He is careful with words, preferring 'the slave trade in the Islamic world' to 'Muslim slavery' — as we do not, after all, call the Atlantic trade 'Christian slavery'. Likewise, he never deserts perspective. While discussing the million or so European Christian captives taken by Barbary corsairs, he reminds us that Christendom enslaved twice as many Muslims in the early modern period. If the Arabs enslaved 17 million souls between AD650 and 1905, Marozzi says that we would do well to remember that nearly as many — perhaps 14 million — Africans were claimed by the Atlantic trade in a much shorter period. Captives and Companions, then, is an unsentimental unveiling of a subject that has long been enshrouded in scholarly purdah. To be sure, Marozzi breaks no new ground in these pages, drawing heavily on recent work by North African, Turkish and a handful of western scholars. Yet the result is an elegant and ambitious synthesis, serving up a scintillating compendium of potted lives. We meet Bilal ibn Rabah, the Ethiopian slave who in AD610 'had his head turned' by the self-styled Prophet Muhammad, rejecting the old gods to become one of his first followers. For this Bilal was tortured by his master, Umayya ibn Khalaf — who met his end at the Battle of Badr in AD624, cut down by his former slave after the prophet's fledgling army routed the Quraysh tribe. Muhammad then appointed Bilal the voice of Islam; as the first muezzin (the caller to prayer), his voice — a resonant baritone — was the one the earliest Muslims heard five times daily, beckoning them to prayer. • The 21 best history books of the past year to read next That was Islam in its radical infancy. Later Arabs, Marozzi shows, shed Muhammad's colour-blindness and took up trafficking darker-skinned Africans. Racism ran deep. Even an intelligent fellow like the 10th-century historian Masudi could be dismayingly provincial and downright racist in his descriptions of black Africans. The Zanj, as they were called, had ten qualities, he wrote: 'Kinky hair, thin eyebrows, broad noses, thick lips, sharp teeth, malodorous skin, dark pupils, clefty hands and feet, elongated penises, and excessive merriment.' Chafing under the Arab yoke, they struck back in AD869, launching what may have been history's largest slave revolt. For 14 years they flattened cities, torching mosques and enslaving their former slaveholders. Something like a million lives were lost before the Zanj Rebellion was quelled. If male slaves could pose a physical threat, female slaves were another kind of risk. The Nestorian physician Ibn Butlan, writing in the 11th century, offered cautionary counsel: resist lustful impulse purchases 'for the tumescent has no judgment, since he decides at first glance, and there is magic in the first glance'. The concubine Arib beguiled no fewer than eight caliphs over seven decades. Al-Amin, clearly a paedophile, adored her when she was still in her early teens, and Mutamid, surely a gerontophile, loved her in her seventies. Even into her nineties she was propositioned, although she demurred: 'Ah, my sons, the lust is present, but the limbs are helpless.' Less threatening were enslaved eunuchs. Although the Quran forbade castration, the enterprising Abbasids found a workaround since their ever-expanding harems needed a steady supply of unthreatening men. Infidels in sub-Saharan Africa did the dirty work of sourcing and exporting eunuchs. It was a gruesome business. Even as late as in the 19th century, nine in ten boys put under the knife died. Western visitors were horrified by the presence of eunuchs in the holy places, although Marozzi might have noted that Christianity, too, had its eunuchs — the Sistine Chapel's last castrato wasn't retired until 1903. Gliding through the ages, dropping a metaphor here and a maxim there, Marozzi's prose recalls an older tradition of history writing — the effortless fluidity of a John Julius Norwich or Jan Morris. Reading him, one thinks of Tintoretto: vast canvases, mannered style, high drama, narrative drive. But it has its drawbacks. Marozzi, whose previous books include The Arab Conquests and Islamic Empires, delights in the zany and lurid. He loves his lobbed heads and unruly libidos, his swivel-eyed slavers and concupiscent concubines. Consider the tale of Thomas Pellow, 'an eleven-year-old Cornish lad' who, in 1715, ignored his parents' warnings and set sail from Falmouth in search of adventure. 'If only he had listened to them,' Marozzi sighs. Snatched by Moroccan corsairs off Cape Finisterre, Pellow landed in Meknes, where beatings and bastinadings — feet flayed while strung upside down — quickly dulled his taste for colourful exploits. To save his skin he 'turned Turk', although he later insisted it was all for show: 'I always abominated them and their accursed principle of Mahometism.' • Read more book reviews and interviews — and see what's top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List As slaves go, he did well. He climbed the ranks, led a 30,000-man slave raid into Guinea and did as he was told, 'stripping the poor negroes of all they had, killing many of them, and bringing off their children into the bargain'. Then came the compulsory marriage in order to sire more slaves for his master: eight African women were paraded before him, but Pellow, bigoted fellow that he was, turned them down, 'not at all liking their colour'. He demanded a wife 'of my colour' and was duly granted one, although by now he was hardly a pasty Cornishman. When he escaped he was briefly mistaken for a 'Moor'. Back in London, he felt alienated from his homeland — until he ended up at dinner at the Moroccan ambassador's, who offered him 'my favourite dish': a big bowl of couscous. Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World by Justin Marozzi (Allen Lane £35 pp560). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
Telegraph
15 hours ago
- Telegraph
Players to have social media screened before entering US for World Cup
Foreign players competing in next year's World Cup in the US will have their social media screened for posts supporting terrorism. Around 1,000 players from 31 competing nations – the US will be exempt – require a P-1 visa to enter the country and take part in sports' biggest global event. The visa requires them to give details of any social media platform they have used in the past five years, including their username or handle, on a form known as a DS-160. Similar requirements will be imposed on the media, including commentators, entering on what is known as an I-visa. The screening of social media, which began in 2019, has been ramped up by the Trump administration, with officials looking for what they regard as anti-Semitism and pro-Palestinian postings. This could raise problems for stars like Egypt's Mohamed Salah, who in 2023 posted a video on X calling for the attacks on Gaza to stop. 'The people of Gaza need food, water and medical supplies urgently,' he said. 'All lives are sacred and must be protected. The massacres need to stop. Families are being torn apart.' Egypt is highly likely to qualify for the tournament in the US next year. Algeria, which currently leads its qualification group, has been outspoken on the issue, offering to host Palestinian matches in its territory. Former Arsenal midfielder and Egyptian international, Mohamed Elneny, has also supported Palestine on social media. In 2021, he tweeted pictures of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, accompanied by the caption: 'My heart and my soul and my support for you Palestine.' Turkey, which has a strong chance of qualifying for next year's tournament, has also seen leading players, including winger Kerem Aktürkoğlu, speak out in favour of Palestinians in Gaza. A planned clash between Turkey's two leading clubs, Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe, in Saudi Arabia was cancelled after the teams wanted to wear shirts highlighting Gaza's plight. Other high-profile supporters of the Palestinian cause include French international Wesley Fofana, who paraded the Palestinian flag across Wembley in 2021 after his team at the time, Leicester City, won the FA Cup. Gary Lineker who, following his departure from the BBC is widely tipped to join broadcaster TNT, could also face problems after he posted a pro-Palestinian video on Instagram, featuring a rat – a symbol associated with anti-Semitism. Although Linker apologised, he remained unrepentant over his right to speak out on the issue. 'If you are silent on Gaza, you are complicit,' he said. As things stand, the strictest controls are being imposed on students and those on cultural exchange visas, with applicants obliged to make their social media settings 'public' – which means they can be read at the time they apply for a visa. Lawyers expect this requirement to be extended to other classes of visas in the next few months. 'The focus is all about anti-Semitism and pro-Palestine, commentary that caused a lot of students to get caught out. And I think it's probably sending a bit further to anti-Trump sentiments, anti-government sentiments,' immigration lawyer Christi Hufford Jackson told The Telegraph. Even under the current arrangements, footballers will have to make their phones and computers open for inspection when entering the US, which means their social media activity will be available to immigration officers at airports. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to The Telegraph that the requirement applies to all travellers. Visitors turned away at US border While such searches are extremely rare, there have been anecdotal reports of visitors to the US being turned away at the border because of anti-Trump material found on their phones. 'The Department of State has announced expanded social media vetting for visa applicants,' Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, the senior director of Government Relations at the American Immigration Lawyers told The Telegraph. 'While their current targets are students who are politically active, a consular officer has broad discretion and could use that to force other visa applicants, including athletes coming to compete in the World Cup, to undergo extreme social media vetting.' Fifa, which is running the World Cup, did persuade the Trump administration to lift restrictions on teams and officials from countries subject to Mr Trump's sweeping travel ban. The ban extends to those travelling to the US from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. However, it accepts that players and officials will be subject to the normal screening process.
The Independent
17 hours ago
- The Independent
Egypt says Ethiopia's completed power-generating dam lacks a legally binding agreement
Egypt said Friday that Ethiopia has consistently lacked the political will to reach a binding agreement on its now-complete dam, an issue that involves Nile River water rights and the interests of Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia's prime minister said Thursday that the country's power-generating dam, known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, on the Nile is now complete and that the government is 'preparing for its official inauguration' in September. Egypt has long opposed the construction of the dam, because it would reduce the country's share of Nile River waters, which it almost entirely relies on for agriculture and to serve its more than 100 million people. The more than the $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile near the Sudan border began producing power in 2022. It's expected to eventually produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity — double Ethiopia's current output. Ethiopia and Egypt have spent years trying to reach an agreement over the dam, which Ethiopia began building in 2011. At one point, tensions ran so high that some feared the dispute would escalate to war. Both countries reached no deal despite negotiations over 13 years, and it remains unclear how much water Ethiopia will release downstream in case of a drought. Egyptian officials, in a statement, called the completion of the dam 'unlawful' and said that it violates international law, reflecting 'an Ethiopian approach driven by an ideology that seeks to impose water hegemony' instead of equal partnership. 'Egypt firmly rejects Ethiopia's continued policy of imposing a fait accompli through unilateral actions concerning the Nile River, which is an international shared watercourse,' Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said in a statement Friday. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in his address to lawmakers Thursday, said that his country 'remains committed to ensuring that our growth does not come at the expense of our Egyptian and Sudanese brothers and sisters.' 'We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water,' he said. 'Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.' However, the Egyptian water ministry said Friday that Ethiopian statements calling for continued negotiations 'are merely superficial attempts to improve its image on the international stage.' 'Ethiopia's positions, marked by evasion and retreat while pursuing unilateralism, are in clear contradiction with its declared willingness to negotiate,' the statement read. However, Egypt is addressing its water needs by expanding agricultural wastewater treatment and improving irrigation systems, according to the ministry, while also bolstering cooperation with Nile Basin countries through backing development and water-related projects.
