By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Egypt has rejected a potential water sharing agreement proposed by a conference of the ten Nile River Basin countries in Sharm Al-Sheik earlier this month. Egypt claims that reducing its traditional water rights threatens its fragile agriculture along the Nile, and perhaps Egypt itself.

Egypt’s latest refusal has led to the other countries upstream, including the Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia, to threaten to shut Egypt out of the pact. Water pacts along the Nile have been in place since 1929, when most of the countries along the river were under British colonial European control. Egypt has traditionally been the most powerful country in the region, and has also held the most robust water rights.

“We will not sign on to any agreement that does not clearly state and acknowledge our historical rights,” said Egyptian Water Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam, after the meeting with representatives from the other Basin countries.

The countries upstream, led by Ethiopia, which contributes eighty percent of the water flowing into Egypt, have demanded what it calls a fairer water deal, departing from pre-independence treaties. Ethiopia and the other upper riparian countries also dispute the legitimacy of a 1959 water treaty between Egypt and Sudan, which allows Egypt alone to use 55.5 billion cubic meters of water per year, 87% of the Nile’s water per year, and granting Sudan 18.5 cubic meters per year. The 1929 and 1959 agreements also give Egypt veto power over any proposed dams and upstream river projects that may influence Egypt’s water flow.

Egypt says the issue could soon be one of national security, and that Egypt may be forced to use military force to protect its water rights. As the effects of climate change worsen, Egypt faces water threats from both ends of the Nile: as sea levels rise, the Egyptian cultural hub in the Nile River Delta could be flooded and inundated with salt water; as water needs become dire upstream, the fabled breadbasket of the Nile River Basin could become arid. Some analysts fear that the Nile River Basin could be a hotspot for a potential “water war.”

For more information, please see:

Afrik.com – Egypt Better Off Settling Water Spat with Ethiopia Led Nile Basin Negotiations – 27 April 2010

Al-Masri Al-Youm – Dying of Thirst vs. Death by Drowning – 27 April 2010

Daily Nation – Tension as Egypt Rejects New Deal for Nile Water – 27 April 2010

Guardian – Egypt Must Negotiate on Nile Water – 26 April 2010

All Headline News – Egypt Will Reassert Traditional Rights to Nile River Water – 23 April 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – The British ambassador in Yemen survived an attack Monday morning by a lone suicide bomber who detonated his explosive belt as the ambassador’s convoy was passing, witnesses said.

he ambassador, Timothy Torlot, was unhurt, said Chantel Mortimer, a spokeswoman for the British Embassy. There did not appear to be anyone injured aside from the bomber himself, according to witnesses at the scene in Sana, the Yemeni capital.

Reuters reported that three people, including two policemen escorting the ambassador’s motorcade, were injured. The neighborhood where the attack occurred is packed with tea shops and markets.

“There was a small explosion beside the British ambassador’s car. He was unhurt. No other embassy staff or British nationals were injured,” said a spokesman for the British Foreign Office. “The embassy will remain closed to the public for the time being.”

No one had claimed credit for the attack by late Monday, but senior Yemeni officials said it bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda. The terrorist network’s regional branch, which has its base in Yemen, has claimed credit for numerous assaults on foreign embassies in Sana, including an ambitious suicide car bomb attack on the well-fortified American Embassy in September 2008 that left 16 people dead, including 6 attackers. Recent attacks have mostly been in outer provinces, but earlier this year, the group threatened to carry out a major attack in the capital.

American intelligence officials regard Yemen’s Al Qaeda branch, made up mainly of Yemenis and Saudis, as a major threat to U.S. regional interests. Washington has been skeptical of Saleh’s government, which for years appeared to tolerate militants as long as they carried out attacks in other countries. Sana’s sentiments appeared to shift in late 2009, however, when the terrorist group became a threat to Saleh, who also was contending with a civil war in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.

The British Foreign Office website states: “We believe that terrorists continue to plan attacks. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including against Western and British interests, such as residential compounds, military and oil facilities, and transport and aviation interests.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Al-Qaeda Blamed For Yemen Bomb Attack On UK Envoy – 26 April 2010

VOA – UK Envoy To Yemen Escapes Suicide Bomb Attack – 26 April 2010

The New York Times – Suicide Attack In Yemen Misses British Envoy – 26 April 2010

Los Angeles Times – Suicide Bomber Attacks British Ambassador’s Motorcade In Yemen – 26 April 2010