clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Egypt may resort to UN to stop Ethiopia filling dam, says ministry 

June 16, 2020 at 9:40 am

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Tunisia on 20 February 2017 [Amine Landoulsi / Anadolu Agency]

Egypt may resort to the United Nations Security Council to prevent Ethiopia from taking a “unilateral step” on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the country’s foreign minister announced yesterday.

“Egypt has adhered to the approach of negotiating with the Ethiopian side and exercised sincere intentions to reach an equitable agreement for the two parties,” Sameh Shoukry told reporters on the sidelines of a Canada Egypt Business Council conference. He added that Addis Ababa was “intransigent and evaded the negotiation”.

Shoukry pointed out that his country’s recent negotiations with Sudan and Ethiopia had not yielded “positive results”, adding that Egypt would “consider other options, such as the UN Security Council in order to prevent Ethiopia from taking unilateral action that could negatively affect Egypt’s water rights.”

The dam is the centrepiece in Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter, but has sparked concerns in Cairo that Egypt’s already scarce supplies of Nile waters, on which its population of more than 100 million people is almost entirely dependent, would be further restricted.

READ: Ethiopia official: ‘Egypt mobilises oppositionists in Oromia to ignite chaos, block dam project’