Sudanese Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi on Monday accused Ethiopia of threatening the country’s national security as it plans to move forward with the second filling of the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile River, reported Anadolu Agency.
“Ethiopians assaulted Sudan and violated the principle of good neighborliness when they carried out the first filling of the dam last July,” the Sudanese minister said in a statement.
She warned that the second filling of the dam without an agreement “would threaten the lives of 20 million Sudanese and Sudan’s national security”.
The statement comes after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Sunday that Addis Ababa will continue with the second filling of the GERD during heavy rainfall months of July and August.
While Ethiopia claims that the GERD is crucial to achieving economic development, Egypt fears that the dam will affect its water share from the Nile, the country’s only source of fresh water. The country depends on the Nile for about 97 percent of its irrigation and drinking water.
Sudan has repeatedly warned that the second filling of the dam without reaching an agreement would compromise the safety of the Sudanese Roseires Dam and endanger the lives of people living in the surrounding area.
Sudan and Egypt have repeatedly called for the need to sign a binding agreement on the rules of filling and operation of the GERD. Years of negotiations between the three countries have failed to make any breakthrough on reaching an agreement. The latest round of talks involving the three countries held in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) failed to reach a binding agreement over the operation of the dam.
Last week, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok invited his Egyptian and Ethiopian counterparts to a closed-door meeting to discuss the long-running dispute over Addis Ababa’s mega-dam on the Blue Nile.
