Ethiopia seeks US clarification on reports of planned aid cut

Ethiopia asked the US government to clarify reports it may withhold about $130-million of aid in a bid to pressure the Horn of Africa nation to review its plans to fill a new dam that have affronted its neighbors. “We have asked for clarification on reports of the United States’ decision not to give the $130-million it assigned to Ethiopia,” Fitsum Arega, Ethiopia’s ambassador to the US, said on Twitter. “We have heard that the issue is related to the ongoing negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.”