Press Release
Speech of the Official Spokesman of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Sudan at the Press Conference Entitled:
Entebbe Agreement, the Renaissance Dam, and the Rulers’ Squandering of the Ummah’s Vital Interests
(Translated)

Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace be upon the one sent as a mercy to the worlds, and the leader of the pious, our master and beloved Muhammad, may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace. And then,

Assalamu alaikum wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatahu,

Talking about water agreements and dams is an important and serious matter, considering that water is vital, and with it people’s lives, indeed all of life, are based. Allah (swt) says:

[وَجَعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمَاءِ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ حَيٍّ]

“And We created from water every living thing.” [Al-Anbya 21:30].

There were a set of agreements governing the flow of the Nile waters with its many tributaries between the Nile Basin countries, which made the situation stable between these countries for many years. However, recently, these agreements were violated by new agreements, such as the Entebbe Agreement, which was concluded in the Ugandan city of Entebbe in May 2010, where Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi signed what was called the Nile Basin Agreement, while it was rejected by Egypt and Sudan without any serious action from them to invalidate this agreement.

The most dangerous issue that came in the Entebbe Agreement is the following:

1-  Equitable use of the Nile Basin waters. The purpose of this article is to end the historical shares of Egypt and Sudan, i.e. 55.5 billion cubic meters for Egypt, and 18.5 billion cubic meters for Sudan, because the phrase ‘equitable use’ is a loose phrase. So, who determines the extent of this equity in light of an article that says that decisions are passed by majority and not by unanimity as was the case previously?!

2-  The agreement also stipulated the establishment of a commission, after at least 6 countries ratify the agreement through their parliaments, and the permanent headquarters of the commission will be Uganda. The parliaments of Ethiopia and Rwanda in 2013, Tanzania in 2015, Uganda in 2019, and Burundi in 2023 have already ratified, while Kenya has not yet ratified.

On 15/7/2024, South Sudan ratified the agreement, and with its ratification, the legal quorum for establishing the Nile Basin Commission was completed, 60 days after South Sudan deposited its ratification of the agreement.

Because Egypt and Sudan are not dealing seriously, as we mentioned, they issued a joint statement just one day before the agreement entered into force. Their statement issued on Saturday, 10/12/2024, stated that the Nile Basin Framework Agreement is not binding on either of them, not only because they did not join it, but also because it violates the principles of international law; customary and contractual. The day after this Egyptian-Sudanese statement, which is neither fattening nor satisfying, Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, tweeted on the X platform on Sunday, 13/10/2024, describing the start of the implementation of the Nile Basin Framework Agreement as a historic moment.

This is regarding the Entebbe Agreement, which clearly shows the conspiracy against the water rights of Egypt and Sudan, the extent of the negligence of the rulers of Egypt and Sudan, and their weak position towards the conspiracies taking place.

Also, among the new agreements that violated the previous agreements that preserve the rights of Egypt and Sudan to the Nile waters is the Declaration of Principles Agreement signed by the presidents of Egypt and Sudan, with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia in Khartoum on 23/10/2015. It is a much worse agreement than the Entebbe Agreement signed in 2010, because it includes full recognition of Ethiopia's construction of the disastrous dam, and its right to reserve water, considering that the dam was built in it; i.e., in Ethiopia, and sovereignty must be equal, as Sudan has its sovereignty as do Egypt and Ethiopia.

With this treacherous signature, all previous agreements were nullified, and Ethiopia was given the right to build whatever dams it wanted on the Blue Nile. This is considered a squandering by the rulers of Egypt and Sudan of the Ummah’s rights to water security.

The question that arises now is, are these countries that signed the Entebbe Agreement acting according to their will and their need for water, or is there external interference that wants to tamper with the issue?!

America intervened early in the Nile Basin water issue. Experts from the US Bureau of Land Reclamation, in coordination with Ethiopia, conducted extensive studies in the Benishangul area and water projects throughout Ethiopia. Studies were prepared for 33 projects, including four dams, and these studies coincided with the idea of ​​building the High Dam in Egypt for several years, and were completed in 1964, but Ethiopia was unable to implement these projects at that time.

As Ethiopia planned to control the Nile, the Jewish entity's projects emerged to obtain a share of the Nile waters, transported by pipelines, but public opinion in Egypt categorically rejects this, and former Egyptian President Sadat tried to get a green light from public opinion. Asharq Al-Awsat Newspaper reported in its Issue 11211 issued on 8/8/2009, by Anis Mansour, where he wrote: "President Sadat asked me to publish news that would be a trial balloon, the gist of which is: President Sadat dreams of the day when the Nile waters reach Jerusalem so that Muslims can perform ablutions and pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque."

In an article in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal, dated 20/10/2010, the following was stated: ‘Israel’ is financing the construction of five dams to store Nile water in Tanzania and Rwanda, following the recent visit of ‘Israeli’ Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to the basin countries. American political analyst Michael T. Klare's book Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global, also revealed a Jewish plan to control the Nile Basin waters, saying: ‘Israel’ has played a major role with the Nile Basin countries to violate international treaties that regulate the distribution of Nile waters, and what is hidden is greater.

This confirms that the so-called basin countries are merely tools used to pressure Egypt and Sudan on the Nile Basin issue.

There is an important piece of information, which is that these countries that are conspiring against Egypt and Sudan do not need water, as they are located in a tropical region with abundant rainfall, and water experts estimate the annual amount of water for the basin countries at more than 1000 billion cubic meters. All that Sudan and Egypt take does not exceed 75 billion cubic meters annually.

Dear brothers, water is vital, and people cannot live without it, as it is one of the vital needs that cannot be replaced. This shameful position represented by the Egyptian and Sudanese regimes is what emboldened these countries, especially Ethiopia. In the latest statement by the Egyptian Foreign Minister, published in Al Arabiya Net on 20/10/2024, he confirmed that the negotiation paths that took place with the Ethiopian side over the course of 13 years ended in vain! This statement shows the extent of the weakness and humiliation of these client agent regimes, as the absurd negotiations mentioned by the minister did not end in vain, but rather ended with the construction of the disastrous Renaissance Dam (An-Nahda Dam), which has reached advanced stages, and it is said that it now stores 60 billion cubic meters of water, and has thus become a time bomb and a dilemma that the Egyptian and Sudanese regimes will not be able to do anything about other than statements that do not fatten or satisfy hunger.

The collusion of the rulers of Egypt and Sudan to allow the construction of the Renaissance Dam is a squandering of the interests of the Ummah, and it violates Islamic law for the following reasons:

1-  It prevents people from getting water, and this is forbidden. The Prophet (saw) said: «ثَلَاثٌ لَا يُمْنَعْنَ: الْمَاءُ، وَالْكَلَأُ، وَالنَّارُ»“Three things cannot be denied to anyone: water, pasture and fire” (Sunan Ibn Majah). And he said, may the best prayers and peace be upon him: «النَّاسُ شُرَكَاءُ فِي ثَلَاثٍ: فِي الْمَاءِ، وَالْكَلَأِ، وَالنَّارِ»“Muslims share alike in three things:water, herbage and fire.” The Nile waters do not belong to the American administration, nor to the Jewish state or Ethiopia to withhold them from the people, nor do they belong to the governments of Egypt and Sudan to squander them, but rather they are public property that should not be withheld.

2-  It empowers the Kuffar (infidels) over our necks, so they will have more control over us than they do now, and this is forbidden and must be prevented. Allah Almighty said:

[وَلَنْ يَجْعَلَ اللهُ لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ سَبِيلاً]

“And Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way over the believers.” [An-Nisa 4:141]. What leaves no room for doubt is that this dam was built to further subjugate the peoples of the region, to engage them in conflict and fighting, and to lead the Kafir colonizer to this battle. On the other hand, it enables the Jewish state to secure water for itself from the Nile! This is more of a way for the Ummah, and this is forbidden by Sharia.

3-  It contains harms that are difficult to count due to their large number, and many of them have been mentioned. This harm is forbidden and must be removed. The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: «لَا ضَرَرَ وَلَا ضِرَارَ»“There should neither be harming (of others without cause), nor reciprocating harm (between two parties).”

If Sudan and Egypt were part of the Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate), the lowly countries, the progeny of colonialism and its tools, would not have dared to threaten the vital interests of the Khilafah, out of spite for Islam and Muslims. The Khilafah is an ideological state that seeks to seize the forefront of the international situation, so the list of vital interests of the Khilafah Rashidah is long and not short, and no country would dare to threaten these interests in the first place.

The history of the Caliphate carries lessons and morals on its glory and preservation of the interests of Muslims, through the strength of its political actions, the pride and arrogance of its negotiators and diplomats, their arrogance and pride, and its threat to use military force, then its actual use, and it is supported by millions of men who are looking forward to dying in the way of Allah. It is the state of glory and dignity, which every Muslim must work with those who work to establish it for the sake of a good life in obedience to Allah Almighty, with which the inhabitants of heaven and earth are pleased.

Wa Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatahu

Ibrahim Othman (Abu Khalil)
Official Spokesman of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Wilayah Sudan