Burhan Visits Eritrea to Discuss Sudan Conflict with the President

A handout image posted on the Sudanese Armed Forces's facebook page on September 4, 2023, shows army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan disembarking from an aircraft upon arrival in Port Sudan, in the Red Sea state, after returning from a visit to South Sudan's capital Juba. (Sudanese Army / AFP)
A handout image posted on the Sudanese Armed Forces's facebook page on September 4, 2023, shows army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan disembarking from an aircraft upon arrival in Port Sudan, in the Red Sea state, after returning from a visit to South Sudan's capital Juba. (Sudanese Army / AFP)
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Burhan Visits Eritrea to Discuss Sudan Conflict with the President

A handout image posted on the Sudanese Armed Forces's facebook page on September 4, 2023, shows army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan disembarking from an aircraft upon arrival in Port Sudan, in the Red Sea state, after returning from a visit to South Sudan's capital Juba. (Sudanese Army / AFP)
A handout image posted on the Sudanese Armed Forces's facebook page on September 4, 2023, shows army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan disembarking from an aircraft upon arrival in Port Sudan, in the Red Sea state, after returning from a visit to South Sudan's capital Juba. (Sudanese Army / AFP)

Sudan’s military chief traveled to Eritrea on Monday for a meeting with President Isaias Afwerki, the general's latest international trip since fighting broke out between his army and a rival paramilitary force in mid-April, state media said.

Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan has been looking for international support since tensions with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, burst into open fighting that has reduced Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and its neighboring cities of Omdurman and Bahri, to urban battlefields.

According to Sudan's state-run SUNA news agency, Monday's talks between Burhan and Isaias will focus on bilateral relations and the conflict in Sudan. No further details were given.

For year, relations between Eritrea and Sudan have been fraught. Sudan is host to some 126,000 Eritrean refugees, according to figures published by the UN refugee agency.

The visit is Burhan's fourth high profile diplomatic meeting in the past two weeks.

Last week, he met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha. The previous week, he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the Egyptian coastal city of el-Alamein.

Fighting raged in Sudan. On Sunday, a drone attack in an open market in Khartoum killed at least 43 people. The Associated Press has been unbale to verify which force was behind the attack.

In the western Darfur region — the scene of a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s — the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, according to rights groups and the United Nations.

The conflict has killed more than 4,000 people, according to the United Nations. The real toll is likely much higher, doctors and activists say.



Egypt Says GERD Lacks Legally Binding Agreement

This grab taken from video shows Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia, Feb. 20, 2022. (AP Photo)
This grab taken from video shows Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia, Feb. 20, 2022. (AP Photo)
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Egypt Says GERD Lacks Legally Binding Agreement

This grab taken from video shows Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia, Feb. 20, 2022. (AP Photo)
This grab taken from video shows Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia, Feb. 20, 2022. (AP Photo)

Egypt said Friday that Ethiopia has consistently lacked the political will to reach a binding agreement on its now-complete dam, an issue that involves Nile River water rights and the interests of Egypt and Sudan.

Ethiopia’s prime minister said Thursday that the country’s power-generating dam, known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), on the Nile is now complete and that the government is “preparing for its official inauguration” in September.

Egypt has long opposed the construction of the dam, because it would reduce the country's share of Nile River waters, which it almost entirely relies on for agriculture and to serve its more than 100 million people.

The more than the $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile near the Sudan border began producing power in 2022. It’s expected to eventually produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity — double Ethiopia’s current output.

Ethiopia and Egypt have spent years trying to reach an agreement over the dam, which Ethiopia began building in 2011.

Both countries reached no deal despite negotiations over 13 years, and it remains unclear how much water Ethiopia will release downstream in case of a drought.

Egyptian officials, in a statement, called the completion of the dam “unlawful” and said that it violates international law, reflecting “an Ethiopian approach driven by an ideology that seeks to impose water hegemony” instead of equal partnership.

“Egypt firmly rejects Ethiopia’s continued policy of imposing a fait accompli through unilateral actions concerning the Nile River, which is an international shared watercourse,” Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said in a statement Friday.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in his address to lawmakers Thursday, said that his country “remains committed to ensuring that our growth does not come at the expense of our Egyptian and Sudanese brothers and sisters.”

“We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water,” he said. “Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.”

However, the Egyptian water ministry said Friday that Ethiopian statements calling for continued negotiations “are merely superficial attempts to improve its image on the international stage.”

“Ethiopia’s positions, marked by evasion and retreat while pursuing unilateralism, are in clear contradiction with its declared willingness to negotiate,” the statement read.

However, Egypt is addressing its water needs by expanding agricultural wastewater treatment and improving irrigation systems, according to the ministry, while also bolstering cooperation with Nile Basin countries through backing development and water-related projects.