Asmaa Al-Husseini (Khartoum)
The head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council in Sudan, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, confirmed, at the conclusion of a summit meeting he held in Khartoum with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, that the two countries are “according and agreed on all issues of the Renaissance Dam,” the huge hydroelectric project that Addis Ababa built on the Nile River.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister, on his first visit to Khartoum since 2020, held a series of meetings in the Sudanese capital, culminating in a summit with Al-Burhan.
A Sudanese official statement quoted Al-Burhan as saying, during the summit, that “Sudan and Ethiopia are compatible and in agreement on all issues of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.” On the other hand, the statement quoted Abiy Ahmed as asserting that “the Renaissance Dam will not cause any harm to Sudan, but will benefit it in the field of electricity.”
Since 2011, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have been negotiating to reach an agreement on filling and operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
According to the statement, Ahmed said that the purpose of his visit is to “show solidarity with Sudan and stand with him at this important stage in his political career.”
The statement quoted the Ethiopian Prime Minister as saying that the border dispute between the two countries is “an old issue that must be referred to documents to resolve it.”
During his visit yesterday, Abiy Ahmed met with representatives of the Sudanese Forces for Freedom and Change coalition, and said that “Ethiopia continues its solidarity with Sudan in the current political process that he is leading himself,” stressing “the principle of Ethiopian non-interference.”
For its part, the Sudanese civil forces praised the visit of the Ethiopian Prime Minister to Khartoum, and his meeting with representatives of civil blocs and forces, in addition to his meetings with military leaders, and they said that they showed the sympathy of Ethiopia, government and people, with their brothers in Sudan during the meeting with military leaders and representatives of civil forces and resistance committees.
In a statement, the Forces for Freedom and Change praised the “Central Council” for the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s assertion that the political process should be entirely Sudanese, without allowing any external party to interfere or impose any solutions. Muhammad Hamad Saeed, representative of the Forces for Freedom and Change bloc, the National Forces, praised the visit of the Ethiopian Prime Minister, and told Al-Ittihad that Ahmed praised the ability of the Sudanese to solve their internal problems on their own. Osama Saeed, spokesman for the Revolutionary Front, told Al-Ittihad that the meeting of the Front’s delegation with the Ethiopian Prime Minister was good, as he declared his government’s commitment to supporting the political process and Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue to achieve the interests and aspirations of the people, noting that the Front’s delegation assured him of its support for the framework agreement.
Sudanese writer and political analyst Abdel-Baqi Jabara told Al-Ittihad that neighboring Ethiopia is preoccupied with major issues with Sudan, the most important of which is the Renaissance Dam and the border dispute in Al-Fashqa.
While the Sudanese writer and political analyst, Khaled Al-Eiser, said that the reasons for the announced visit came to discuss the issue of the Renaissance Dam and border issues, adding that Sudan, in turn, hopes to lift the freeze on its membership in the African Union at the next African summit.
