Rhino: Agencies – Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Ate on Sunday sent a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) following recent statements by the Ethiopian prime minister about the fifth phase of filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
The Renaissance Dam is located about 15 km from the Sudanese border on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile River.
According to a Foreign Ministry statement, Abdel Aty stressed in the letter ‘Egypt’s categorical rejection of Ethiopia’s unilateral policies that violate the rules and principles of international law, which constitute a clear violation of the Declaration of Principles agreement signed between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in 2015 and the Security Council presidential statement issued on 15 September 2021.’
‘Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s statements about reserving a quantity of Blue Nile water this year and completing the construction of the concrete structure of the Ethiopian Dam are completely unacceptable to the Egyptian state, and represent a continuation of Ethiopia’s troubling approach to its neighbor’s and threaten the stability of the region, most of whose countries aspire to strengthen cooperation and integration among themselves, rather than sowing seeds of discord and differences between peoples bound by ties of brotherhood and common destiny,’ the letter added.
Egypt and Ethiopia have been at odds for years over the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile near the border with Sudan.
Egypt has long opposed the project due to concerns about its future water supply from the Nile River, on which it relies heavily. Sudan has also voiced concerns about the organization and safety of its own water supply and dams.
Egypt, a desert country, gets at least 90 per cent of its freshwater needs from the Nile River.
Ethiopia says the four-billion-dollar dam, which aims to generate 6,450 megawatts of electricity, is crucial to its economic development.
Egypt’s letter to the Security Council on Sunday explained that the end of the GERD negotiations after 13 years of negotiations ‘with Egypt’s sincere intentions came after it became clear to everyone that Addis Ababa only wants to continue the negotiating cover for an indefinite period of time in order to consolidate the status quo, without having the political will to reach a solution.’