Sisi must step down over Ethiopia dam crisis, ex-editor of Al-Ahram says

The former Editor-in-Chief of Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper, Abdel Nasser Salama, has called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to resign, blaming him for the “heavy defeat” suffered by the country before Ethiopia in the Renaissance Dam crisis.

In an unprecedented article published on Facebook, Salama said that Al-Sisi is responsible for “wasting Egypt’s historical right to the Nile [River] when he granted legitimacy to the dam by signing the ominous 2015 [Declaration of Principles for the Renaissance Dam project] agreement” despite being fully aware of the consequences.

The Egyptian writer added that Al-Sisi granted the Declaration of Principles legitimacy again by resorting to the UN Security Council without preparing, in addition to his inability to take a military decision that “brings the conspiring Ethiopian leadership back to its senses”, despite spending billions of dollars on buying weapons.

Salama pointed out that Al-Sisi has already ceded the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia, gave up two gas fields in the Mediterranean to Israel, and wasted Egypt’s wealth on useless armaments; tying up the country to exorbitant debts that it will never be able to repay.

Salameh accused the Egyptian president of spreading a state of terror and fear among Egyptians, creating an unprecedented state of polarisation, imprisoning and arresting tens of thousands of people, and turning Sinai into a cemetery for soldiers and officers.

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