CAIRO (AP) — Egypt on Friday blamed Ethiopia for the rising Nile River waters and flooding this week in two of its northernmost provinces, claiming the unusually high water levels are due to the east African country's mismanagement of its new controversial dam on the river.
The floods in Beheira and Menoufia provinces in the Nile Delta in Egypt have submerged farmland and flooded village homes, many built illegally on silt deposits and sediments along the canals crisscrossing the delta.
Videos posted online Friday show residents in Menoufia wading through waist-deep water and partially submerged homes. In Ashmoun, farmers and residents were urged to urgently leave their lands and homes.
The extend of the damage by the floods in Egypt was not immediately known and officials in Menoufia could not be reached for comment and information about the damage.
Earlier this week, flooding along the Nile in war-stricken Sudan, which borders both Egypt and Ethiopia, prompted scores of villagers there to evacuate their homes. The U.N. migration agency, the International Organization for Migration, said on Thursday that about 100 households in Khartoum were also flooded.
Egypt now says that it was forced to discharge waters from its High Aswan Dam on the Nile in the country's south, because it could not hold back rising water levels coming in from Ethiopia, more than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) away.
Ethiopia earlier this month inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa’s largest dam, to boost its economy. The nearly $5 billion dam, located on the Blue Nile — one of the two main tributaries of the Nile — near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, is expected to double Ethiopia’s electricity generation capacity, according to officials.
But Egypt and Sudan say the dam in Ethiopia was in violation of an agreement — dating back to the colonial times — on how they should share Nile water resources.
On Friday, Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said in a statement that it was “closely monitoring developments” linked to what it says is “reckless unilateral actions by Ethiopia in managing its illegal dam, which violates international law.”
Ethiopia's actions pose a “direct threat to the lives and security of the peoples of downstream countries,” the statement said.
Ethiopia says it is not responsible for the floodings downstream and that its new dam on the Blue Nile has actually helped in "reducing the catastrophic effect” the floods could otherwise cause in neighboring Sudan.
People carry their belongings on a boat after their homes were destroyed by floods, in Wad Ramli village, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Khartoum, Sudan, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)
A farmer rows his boat after flooding in Dalhamo Village, near the Delta city of Ashmoun, Egypt, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Gehad Gad, Egypt Telegraph via AP)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.
Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.
The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, An independent counsel has requested the death sentence over that charge, and the Seoul Central District Court will decide on that in a ruling on Feb. 19.
Yoon has maintained he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.
In Friday’s case, the Seoul court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him and fabricating the martial law proclamation. He was also sentenced for sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting, which deprived some Cabinet members who were not convened of their rights to deliberate on his decree.
Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing “a heavy punishment” was necessary because Yoon hasn’t shown remorse and has only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses.” The judge also said restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon’s action was necessary.
Yoon’s defense team said they will appeal the ruling, which they believe was “politicized” and reflected “the unliberal arguments by the independent counsel.” Yoon’s defense team argued the ruling “oversimplified the boundary between the exercise of the president’s constitutional powers and criminal liability.”
Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.
South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon’s decree didn’t cause casualties and didn’t last long, although Yoon hasn’t shown genuine remorse for his action.
South Korea has a history of pardoning former presidents who were jailed over diverse crimes in the name of promoting national unity. Those pardoned include strongman Chun Doo-hwan, who received the death penalty at a district court over his 1979 coup, the bloody 1980 crackdowns of pro-democracy protests that killed about 200 people, and other crimes.
Even if Yoon is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial, he may still face other prison sentences in the multiple smaller trials he faces.
Some observers say Yoon is likely retaining a defiant attitude in the ongoing trials to maintain his support base in the belief that he cannot avoid a lengthy sentence but could be pardoned in the future.
On the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Yoon abruptly declared martial law in a televised speech, saying he would eliminate “anti-state forces” and protect “the constitutional democratic order.” Yoon sent troops and police officers to encircle the National Assembly, but many apparently didn’t aggressively cordon off the area, allowing enough lawmakers to get into an assembly hall to vote down Yoon’s decree.
No major violence occurred, but Yoon's decree caused the biggest political crisis in South Korea in decades and rattled its diplomacy and financial markets. For many, his decree, the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea, brought back harrowing memories of past dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed leaders used martial law and emergency measures to deploy soldiers and tanks on the streets to suppress demonstrations.
After Yoon's ouster, his liberal rival Lee Jae Myung became president via a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to look into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.
Yoon's other trials deal with charges like ordering drone flights over North Korea to deliberately inflame animosities to look for a pretext to declare martial law. Other charges accuse Yoon of manipulating the investigation into a marine’s drowning in 2023 and receiving free opinion surveys from an election broker in return for a political favor.
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
