The Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, agreed, on Thursday, to finalize within four months an agreement on filling and operating the Renaissance Dam that Addis Ababa is building, and both Cairo and Khartoum fear its impact on them.
According to a joint statement published by the Egyptian presidency, “the two leaders discussed ways to overcome the current stalemate in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations.”
They agreed, according to the statement, to “initiate urgent negotiations to finalize the agreement between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to fill the Renaissance Dam and the rules for its operation … within four months.”
The meeting of the two leaders came on the sidelines of the meeting of Sudan’s neighboring countries in an attempt to resolve the crisis it is witnessing as a result of the power struggle between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.
For his part, Mubarak Ardol, a former leader of one of the rebel groups in Sudan and considered close to the army, wrote on his Twitter account, “Despite our absence (Sudan), we fully support this bilateral statement regarding the Renaissance Dam.”
“Sudan will surely join soon to make the agreement tripartite, without outside mediators,” he added.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, also commended the two leaders’ meeting and “their joint decision to strengthen bilateral relations, including the resumption of negotiations to resolve outstanding issues regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam for the benefit of their peoples.”
Since 2011, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have been negotiating to reach an agreement on filling and operating the Renaissance Dam, but long rounds of negotiations between the three countries have not yet yielded an agreement.
Although Egypt and Sudan have repeatedly urged Ethiopia to postpone its plans to fill the dam’s reservoir until a comprehensive agreement is reached, Addis Ababa announced, on June 22, its readiness to launch the fourth phase of filling the dam’s reservoir, which has a capacity of about 74 billion cubic meters of water.
In this regard, according to Thursday’s statement, “Ethiopia made clear its commitment, during the filling of the dam during the hydrological year 2023-2024, not to cause significant harm to Egypt and Sudan, in order to provide the water needs of both countries.”
Egypt relies on the Nile River for 97 percent of its water needs.
Ethiopia officially launched, in February of 2022, electricity production from the dam, which it presents as among the largest in Africa. Its production target has been revised from 6,500 to 5,000 megawatts, twice Ethiopia’s current production, and it is expected to reach its full production capacity in 2024.
2023-07-13 22:23:01
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