General Hemeti rules out military confrontation with Ethiopia over GERD

JUBA — The deputy chairman of Sudan’s ruling Transitional Sovereign Council General Mohammed Hamadan Daglo has ruled out any military confrontation with neighboring Ethiopia over Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) dispute saying any disagreement over the matter will be settled by an international arbitration.

Ethiopia is on odds with Sudan and Egypt over a $4 billion dam being built by the East African country and which Egypt and Sudan fear could affect their water share.

Speaking to Sudans Post’s Nancy Abdulrahaman in Khartoum on Monday, Daglo said Sudan won’t enter war with Ethiopia over the matter and that any disagreement over the dam will only force the two countries to seek international arbitration.

“The first and the last choice will be an international arbitration,” Daglo who is better known as ‘Hemeti’ said. “We are not in a position to fight our neighbors. We are not ready to solve our differences with our neighbors with Bundugiya (gun) because we don’t want to create crisis in the region.”

The senior military commander also said the Sudanese government will apply the same approach if disagreements with South Sudan over disputed areas such as Abyei persisted.

“Also we have the issue of Abyei with the state of South Sudan. We are brothers and we have a long history together. If we have any disagreement, we will return to the international arbitration because we don’t want war,” the commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said.

“It is not because we fear someone. We only fear God, but God want us to solve our differences as human in a peaceful manner because we don’t want the innocent to suffer. We have already a refugee crisis because of the wars in South Sudan and Ethiopia, if we created a new one, we won’t be able to cope with it given the current economic crisis in the region,” he added.

General Daglo further urged Ethiopia to be “mindful of how the dam dispute could damage bilateral relations between Sudan and Ethiopian and we want the rulers there to offer compromises.”