Ethiopia has started the second phase of filling the reservoir of its mega-dam on the upper Blue Nile, Egypt and Sudan said, raising tensions Tuesday ahead of an upcoming UN Security Council meeting on the divisive project.
Both Cairo and Khartoum said they had been notified by Addis Ababa that the second phase of filling had begun at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Egypt’s irrigation ministry late Monday expressed its “firm rejection of this unilateral measure” and Sudan’s foreign ministry on Tuesday followed suit, labelling the move a “risk and imminent threat”.
The huge dam, set to be Africa’s largest hydroelectric project when completed, has sparked an almost decade-long diplomatic stand-off between Addis Ababa and downstream nations Egypt and Sudan.
Ethiopia says the project is essential to its development, but Cairo and Khartoum fear it could restrict their citizens’ water access.
Both governments have been urging Addis Ababa to sign a binding deal over the filling and the dam’s operations, calling on the UN Security Council to take up the matter.
UNSC to meet
Thursday’s Security Council meeting was requested by Tunisia on behalf of Egypt and Sudan.
But France’s ambassador to the UN said last week that the council itself can do little apart from bringing all the sides together and “encourage them to get back to the negotiations”.
Tunisia has also submitted a draft resolution calling on Ethiopia to cease filling the reservoir, diplomatic sources said Tuesday.
The text calls on the three countries to resume negotiations and to finalise the details of an agreement on filling within six months.
It urges the “three countries to refrain from making any statements, or taking any action that may jeopardize the negotiation process, and urges Ethiopia to refrain from continuing to unilaterally fill the GERD reservoir.”
No date has been set for the draft resolution vote.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said in an earlier note to the UN that negotiations are at an impasse, and accused Ethiopia of adopting “a policy of intransigence that undermined our collective endeavours to reach an agreement.”
Shoukry and his Sudanese counterpart Mariam al-Mahdi met in New York ahead of the Security Council talks and reiterated their “firm rejection” of Ethiopia’s move, Cairo said.
Relations between Cairo and Addis Ababa have been icy over the past decade, while tensions have also risen between Ethiopia and Sudan as the Tigray conflict has sent refugees fleeing across the border into Sudan.