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LONDON: The Archbishop of Canterbury, essentially the most senior determine within the Church of England, has known as on Ethiopia to restart talks with Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
The Most Rev. Justin Welby was talking at an occasion in Egypt inaugurating a brand new episcopal province on Friday, the place he mentioned that pure assets “weren’t the only property of particular person nations.”
The GERD, damming a stretch of the Blue Nile, has been a supply of pressure between the three African states for a while, with Egypt and Sudan fearing the influence it is going to have on important water provides downstream.
The dam can be Africa’s largest supply of hydroelectricity, however Cairo and Khartoum have accused Addis Ababa of breaking worldwide legislation by persevering with to fill it with out their approval.
There have even been strategies that Egypt may launch airstrikes in opposition to Ethiopia if a decision will not be met.
“I enchantment to the Ethiopian authorities to indicate that they may use the dam responsibly, caring for his or her neighbors downstream,” Welby mentioned. “Please present that this dam will not be a purpose to fret.”
The brand new episcopal province of the Anglican Church Welby inaugurated relies in Alexandria, masking Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Eritrea, Somalia, Mauritania, Chad and Djibouti, and serving round 40,000 worshipers.
“The province covers an enormous space, from the waves of the Atlantic to the seashores of the Pink Sea and the Indian Ocean,” Welby mentioned in his sermon at All Saint’s Cathedral in Cairo. “A thousand years in the past, this space preserved medication and studying. At the moment, Egypt has once more discovered its historic place as a spot of assembly, of refuge.”
Egypt has a protracted historical past of Christian worship, with greater than 9 million worshipers dwelling there. Most are Coptic Christians, a spiritual minority that has confronted persecution in recent times. Nonetheless, Welby praised the efforts of the North African nation to enhance relations between its disparate spiritual communities.
“Christians are to be a part of a church that’s advised to beat with love and peace — by no means, by no means by a sword, a bomb or a plot,” Welby mentioned. “And I say to our pricey, pricey associates from the Islamic group: How typically have Christians received this improper? Our historical past is without doubt one of the tragic sin of drive. Allow us to be individuals of peace collectively.”
The archbishop is predicted to go to a refugee charity over the weekend, Refuge Egypt, as a part of his journey, earlier than returning to the UK on Monday.
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