A photograph of Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed together has been circulate by the media, amid claims that the two have agreed a deal regarding Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam on the River Nile. Newspaper reports say that Sawiris has paid $200 million to finance the construction of the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia, in exchange for allowing him to dig for gold in the country.
“I have responded 100 times…” said businessman Sawiris in response to the reports. “I have no mines in Ethiopia, nor [financial connections to] the dam.”
He pointed out that the photo with Ahmed is old. “The man was still newly elected before the disagreement between us, and I haven’t been there since.”
A few weeks ago, Ethiopia began the fifth filling of the reservoir behind the dam, retaining an additional 23 billion cubic metres of Nile water. The move added to the 41 billion cubic metres that were detained in the previous four stages, which sparked official protests from Egypt and Sudan, the two downstream countries affected by the construction of the dam.
In December 2023, Egypt again announced the failure of negotiations, after several mediation attempts failed to dissuade Ethiopia from filling the reservoir.
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