Democratic Republic of the CongoEgyptEthiopiaSudan
DRC To Host Negotiation Talks On Controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Issue
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will host a three-day meeting in Kinshasa where foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan will meet to talk on the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile River, reported Al Jazeera.
The three-day meeting will be hosted by the DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, who took over the chair of the African Union last month.
The African Union Commission’s chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat, is also expected to attend, according to a report published in the publication Jeune Afrique.
Earlier this month, Egypt and Sudan had urged the DRC to steer efforts to re-launch negotiation talks on the GERD being built at a cost of $4.6bn, as they seek to settle their years-long dispute over the project.
Egypt, which depends on the Nile for about 97 percent of its irrigation and drinking water, fears the dam would restrict its water supply.
Sudan, also downstream, fears its own dams will be compromised if Ethiopia proceeds with filling the GERD before a deal is reached. Ethiopia, on the other hand, says the hydroelectric power produced by the GERD will be crucial to meet the energy needs of its 110 million people.
Egypt and Sudan are seeking a legally binding agreement over the filling and operations of the GERD.
Earlier this week, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi warned that there would be severe regional consequences if the country’s water supply were affected due to the filing of the controversial GERD on the Nile.
“Nobody will be permitted to take a single drop of Egypt’s water, otherwise the region will fall into unimaginable instability,” el-Sisi warned.
The Sudanese government had also previously warned Ethiopia against unilaterally filling the dam, claiming such a move would threaten Sudan’s national security. It proposed a mediation quartet of the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, and the United States regarding the GERD issue, but Ethiopia has rejected the mediation quartet.
