The Spokesperson for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry Ahmed Hafez on Thursday condemned a statement by the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson which touched on Egypt’s internal affairs, slamming it as a “blatant transgression” and “unacceptable as a whole”.
The statement violated long-standing long-standing African values that promote brotherhood and respect for others as well as the Constitutive Act of the African Union, he said, which clearly states in Article Four that member states are obliged not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.
Hafez said that such a statement only affirms Ethiopia’s continued hostile tone which aims to cover up it’s numerous failures, while Egypt has always preferred to refrain from discussing in any way the internal situation and developments in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian speaker’s statement would have been better spent on addressing the challenges his countries is facing, Hafez added, such as the conflicts killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands of innocent citizens – the most recent of which was in the Tigray and Benishangul regions, as well as continuous tension and instability in the Oromia region.
Hafez also criticized hostilities from Ethiopian forces towards its regional surroundings such as recent military actions and escalating tensions in the border strip with Sudan.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Ethiopian Chargé d’Affairs to Cairo, to provide clarifications regarding the statements of the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson in which he commented on Egyptian internal affairs.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Dina Mufti said that South Africa, which chairs the African Union, had invited Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to a meeting on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam next Sunday.
