This open letter is in response to a new attempt on the part of the United States, especially US President Donald J. Trump, to intervene in the conflict in Ethiopia and Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile. Although often described in terms of promoting ‘regional stability’, this intervention raises fundamental questions about sovereignty, legitimacy and power relations in Africa.
The Nile River passes through and is used by many countries, most notably Egypt, which has historically had great political influence over the waters of the Nile due to colonial-era agreements. Ethiopia’s construction of the GERD marks a potentially transformative shift in this balance: to enable upstream African countries to jointly develop resources while adhering to their obligations not to cause significant damage.
The role of the United States in these events is not impartial. Washington has been a long-time strategic partner of Egypt, providing military support, diplomatic encouragement and political support related to broader Middle East and security interests. When the United States acts as a mediator, it does so with these pre-existing alliances. This is why many Ethiopians and Africans see U.S. mediation not as independent conflict resolution, but as an attempt to continue outside pressure to maintain the status quo.
For Ethiopia, the U.S. intervention jeopardizes a national project central to its identity and pursuit of self-reliance, economic transformation, and African agency. The GERD is domestically financed, built outside foreign domination and negotiated on African-led platforms such as the African Union in particular. External intervention could well sabotage the processes and create a primacy of seeking consent from Western powers for African development projects.
For Egypt, continued dependence on U.S. diplomacy prolongs crucial domestic reforms in water management and perpetuates its discursive right to a shared river. It internationalizes what is essentially a regional and continental issue, rather than constructively engaging upstream countries on the continent through African platforms.
This letter thus responds not only to a specific example of American entanglement, but also to a disturbing trend: the sidelining of African solutions; the persistence in international policy debates of assumptions associated with colonialism in the museum; and an attempt to redefine African development as a security problem rather than addressing it for what it is. What follows is a clear rejection of that approach, and instead a call for respect; respect for sovereignty, for African institutions and for the peoples whose future is immediately at stake.
Dear Mr. President Trump,
Your letter dated January 16, 2024, addressed to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been noted. I am writing to you not as a representative of the Ethiopian government, but as a patriot of the nation that conceived, financed and built the dam that you now believe you are brokering.
1. You are not welcome here
Your offer to “restart US mediation” is categorically rejected. You are not the president of Ethiopia. You have not contributed a dime, an idea, or a single day of labor to the GERD. This dam was financed 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 alliances in the Middle East, nor a gift to Egypt in exchange for political favors. Ethiopia does not accept mediators who arrive with predetermined loyalties.
2. Your untruths are amusing, they don’t 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 characteristic disregard for the truth – amusing, if it weren’t so revealing of your disrespect for sovereignty. We built the GERD ourselves. We don’t need your fictitious financing, and certainly not your fictitious mediation.
3. The Egyptian water crisis is a consequence of its own causes
Before Egypt lectures others on water security, it must address its own deep water management shortcomings. The Aswan High Dam loses more water through evaporation every year than the entire storage capacity of the GERD. Meanwhile, Egypt misuses its scarce Nile water to support desert golf courses and vanity projects such as oasis Olympic cities, while much of the population faces scarcity. Jealousy of Ethiopia’s rise has driven the country into hysteria, attempting to limit Ethiopian development rather than rein in 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 an emerging Africa. Across the continent, people see it as a symbol of what is possible through self-reliance and vision. However, Egypt only sees Africa when it needs something. The rest of the time it identifies as an Arab nation, often looking down on the continent it claims to belong to. This is precisely why Egypt refuses to allow the African Union, the rightful continental body, to mediate on this issue. Instead, it flees to its “white masters” and Arab benefactors, rejecting African solidarity in favor of foreign patronage.
5. Your story about “regional security” is a provocation and a fiction
Framing the GERD as a “regional security problem” is a reckless provocation. This is a development project, not a weapon. Your implicit threats of “military confrontation” are not only irresponsible, but also 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 and not a reflection of reality.
6. You have no moral or diplomatic standing here
Your government’s previous mediation attempt in 2020 was a biased failure. You have openly sided with Egypt, issuing ultimatums and spreading falsehoods about financing – a pattern that exposed 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 issue belongs to Africa. The mediation you propose has only one legitimate location, namely the African Union, with headquarters in Addis Ababa. It must engage all countries in the Nile Basin in a conversation led by Africans, for Africans. Continued global policing by Washington, and of course by yourself, Mr. Trump, must be kept at bay. Africa does not need external saviors; it requires respect for its institutions, and its right to govern and solve its own challenges.
8. A last word to Africa
To my fellow Africans: The GERD is our Ethiopian symbol, but above all an African symbol. It represents a continent that can build, perform and lead. We must stand in solidarity, denounce any disrespect towards the African Union and reject any external interference in our affairs. This is not only the prize of Ethiopia, but also the pride of Africa.
We didn’t build the GERD to please you, Mr. Trump, nor to appease the police diplomats in Washington, nor to fear you, nor to negotiate with you about its existence. 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 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
Lobbyist and investment banker from Washington, DC
Speaking on behalf of the sovereign people of Ethiopia
For more information, please contact Yuri at here.
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