Sisi sends messages across Africa about Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has sent a message to Tanzania on the latest developments regarding Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam on the River Nile. The message was handed over on Wednesday by Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry to his Tanzanian counterpart, Palamagamba Kabudi.

Shoukry met Kabudi in the Tanzanian capital Dodoma and discussed ways of strengthening bilateral relations, the Foreign Ministry in Cairo said on Twitter. The Egyptian official is on an African tour which includes South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Niger during which he will deliver a message from Al-Sisi to his fellow presidents across the continent.

Similar messages have already been sent to South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa regarding the dam, as well as the Presidents of Djibouti and Somalia. Meanwhile, a delegation from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, headed by the Assistant Minister for Arab Affairs, Ambassador Yasser Othman, has visited Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania to brief their leaders.

Egypt is concerned that Ethiopia’s plans to start filling the reservoirs behind the dam all at the same time will mean that the countries downstream will have reduced water supplies for several years. The Egyptians depend on water from the Nile for drinking and irrigation.

READ: Egypt’s options in the Renaissance Dam crisis