Egypt blames Ethiopia’s new dam for rising Nile waters, flooding
CAIRO—Egypt on Friday blamed Ethiopia for the rising Nile River waters and flooding this week in two of its northernmost provinces, claiming the unusually high water levels are due to the east African country’s mismanagement of its new controversial dam that is more than 2,000 kilometers away to the south.
The floods in Beheira and Menoufia provinces in the Nile Delta in Egypt have submerged farmland and flooded village homes, many built illegally on silt deposits and sediments along the canals crisscrossing the delta.
Videos posted online on Friday show residents in Menoufia wading through waist-deep water and partially submerged homes. In Ashmoun, farmers and residents were urged to urgently leave their lands and homes.
The extent of the damage by the floods in Egypt was not immediately known and officials in Menoufia could not be reached for comment and information about the damage.
Sudan
Earlier this week, flooding along the Nile in war-stricken Sudan, which borders both Egypt and Ethiopia, prompted scores of villagers there to evacuate their homes. The UN migration agency, the International Organization for Migration, said on Thursday that about 100 households in Khartoum were also flooded.
