Disputes over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam have, once again, threatened security in North-East Africa.

The Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic is presenting Ethiopia with an unprecedented and a complex adaptive challenge.

Up front, let me start this article by paraphrasing the old saying: “He who lives in a Glass House should not throw stone at his neighbors”.

The Nile basin is home to more than 400 million people, roughly around 40 percent of the African population.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is initiated, funded, and being built by Ethiopians reflecting their collective determination to leave the next generation socially and economically secured.

The COVID-19 coronavirus – which has now spread to more than 100 countries – has pushed the world into “uncharted territory,” according to World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom.

Since the detection and confirmation of the outbreak of novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province – China at the end of 2019, there are scores of worthwhile lessons that Africa can from countries that have effectively responded to the killer and highly contagious flu-like virus.

As the new coronavirus, COVID-19, nears pandemic status, a second scourge has followed in its path: a virulent racism that scapegoats refugees, asylum seekers, and foreigners more generally as the cause of the outbreak.

Ethiopia has a history stretching back over 2,000 years. The word “Ethiopia” has become a term for the idea of African solidarity and freedom, not just the name of a nation or a region. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus noted the region of Ethiopia as home to “people with burnt faces.” During the Greek and Roman eras, everything south of the Sahara Desert in Africa was generally referred to as Ethiopia or Abyssinia.

One need not present a bibliographical easy to prove that the Nile River, otherwise known as Abbay River, the longest river in Africa, starts in and flows from the highlands of Ethiopia. On it’s more than 4,000 miles journey, the Nile River collects many smaller tributaries carrying with them the most fertile top soil, washed down during the rainy season from Ethiopia to Sudan, Egypt and beyond. It is a common knowledge that the Nile River has been and remains to be part of Ethiopia’s natural resources.