(MENAFN) Ethiopia unleashed a fierce diplomatic offensive against Egypt Wednesday, charging Cairo with destabilizing efforts across the Horn of Africa to preserve outdated control over Nile River waters.

The sharp rebuke from Addis Ababa represents the most recent flare-up in an escalating verbal confrontation that has gained momentum following Ethiopia's official September launch of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed in its official statement that Egyptian leadership is deploying an "obsolete playbook" designed to engineer "pliant, weak and fragmented client states" serving Cairo's strategic interests.

"Steeped in a colonial era mentality, some Egyptian officials think that they have a monopoly over the waters of the Nile," the ministry said, rejecting Egypt's claims to "historical rights."

The counterattack comes after Cairo issued multiple harsh criticisms since the dam became operational, including an official UN complaint and remarks by Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty at the UN General Assembly in September labeling Ethiopia's moves as the foremost danger to African peace and stability across the region.

After the Sept. 9 GERD launch, Abdelatty filed an official UN Security Council protest calling the dam's activation an "unlawful unilateral act" and cautioned that "any misconceptions that Cairo would turn a blind eye to its existential interests...are pure delusions."

Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation additionally charged Addis Ababa with "reckless" oversight, holding uncoordinated discharge patterns responsible for catastrophic flooding throughout neighboring Sudan.

Cairo maintained these measures breached international legal standards and created immediate dangers for communities living downstream.

Ethiopia—which regards the approximately $5 billion hydroelectric project as a cornerstone of national development and crucial for nationwide power access—has consistently dismissed such accusations through multiple official responses. "Ethiopia has no obligation to seek permission from anyone to use natural resources found within its borders," the Foreign Ministry said in its latest statement Wednesday, noting that 86% of the Nile's waters originate in the Ethiopian highlands.

The declaration also reinforced Addis Ababa's pledge to "fair, reasonable and equitable utilization" of the river, calling on Egypt to end its "campaign of destabilization."

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