Egypt calls for urgent negotiations with Ethiopia, Sudan on dam

Egypt has submitted an urgent request to the African Union to call it to hold a negotiation session between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, following the official announcement by Addis Ababa of the inauguration of the first phase of electricity generation process its dam, in violation to the Declaration of Principles signed between the three countries in Khartoum in March 2015.

Last Sunday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched the process of producing electricity from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, by operating one out of 13 turbines, to generate about 200 megawatts.

Diplomatic sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Ethiopia, in coordination with an official in the African Union, is obstructing the procedures of forming the committee of experts charged with leading the negotiations between the three countries.

The sources indicated Egyptian accusations against the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, because of his “collusion with Addis Ababa to disrupt the course of negotiations, to help Ethiopia impose a de facto situation on the two downstream countries.”

The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Ethiopia of violating its commitments under the 2015 Declaration of Principles Agreement. The ministry said in a statement that “this step is considered a further attempt by the Ethiopian side to violate its commitments under the 2015 Declaration of Principles Agreement, signed by the Ethiopian prime minister.”

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