Sudan Says Return to GERD Negotiations Subject to Change in Method

Sudan’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasir Abbas takes part in a trilateral meeting to resume negotiations on the GERD, in Khartoum, Sudan on Dec. 21, 2019. (AFP)
Sudan’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasir Abbas takes part in a trilateral meeting to resume negotiations on the GERD, in Khartoum, Sudan on Dec. 21, 2019. (AFP)
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Sudan Says Return to GERD Negotiations Subject to Change in Method

Sudan’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasir Abbas takes part in a trilateral meeting to resume negotiations on the GERD, in Khartoum, Sudan on Dec. 21, 2019. (AFP)
Sudan’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasir Abbas takes part in a trilateral meeting to resume negotiations on the GERD, in Khartoum, Sudan on Dec. 21, 2019. (AFP)

Sudan is unwilling to return to the Grand Renaissance Ethiopian Dam (GERD) negotiations with the old method, led by the African Union (AU).

Sudan’s Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Yasir Abbas urged a change in the negotiating method, saying: “Sudan is not ready to enter into talks with Ethiopia in the same previous way because it means buying time.”

Speaking at a press conference in Khartoum, Abbas said Khartoum demands a change in the AU’s negotiations methodology, developing the role of observers into mediators, and forming an international mediation quartet made up of the AU, United Nations, European Union, and US.

He asserted Sudan’s demand, which was proposed in Kinshasa in April, and backed by Egypt.

Abbas also stressed that exchanging information about filling and operating the GERD “is an absolute necessity” and that a legally binding agreement in this regard “must be signed.”

The official affirmed that the GERD could be beneficial to Sudan provided that information is exchanged with Sudanese officials managing the Roseires Dam under a legally binding agreement.

The GERD will completely change the flow of the Blue Nile by flattening its hydrograph, and with its gigantic size, it “poses substantial threats to Sudan if it is not properly designed, constructed, filled and operated,” he continued.

Abbas reiterated his government’s commitment to serious negotiations as the only way to resolve the dispute over the dam.

“When we say the Roseires Dam, we mean that the entire water system from Khartoum to Atbara will be affected, as well as drinking water plants. It will go out of service if the water level drops to less than 90 million cubic meters.”

The official ruled out Sudan’s signing of a bilateral agreement with Ethiopia, saying the Blue Nile is an international river shared by countries.

“Sudan will benefit from the GERD in terms of generating electricity and reducing silt and floods, but only on the condition that there is a binding tripartite agreement,” said Abbas.

He reiterated that the three parties agreed on 90 percent of the contentious issues, which are primarily technical, adding that the remaining 10 percent are related to the binding legal agreement, which defines conflict resolution mechanisms in case of disagreement.



UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
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UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)

More than 1.3 million people who fled the fighting in Sudan have headed home, the United Nations said Friday, pleading for greater international aid to help returnees rebuild shattered lives.

Over a million internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to their homes in recent months, UN agencies said.

A further 320,000 refugees have crossed back into Sudan this year, mainly from neighboring Egypt and South Sudan.

While fighting has subsided in the "pockets of relative safety" that people are beginning to return to, the situation remains highly precarious, the UN said.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has killed tens of thousands.

The RSF lost control of the capital, Khartoum, in March and the regular army now controls Sudan's center, north and east.

In a joint statement, the UN's IOM migration agency, UNHCR refugee agency and UNDP development agency called for an urgent increase in financial support to pay for the recovery as people begin to return, with humanitarian operations "massively underfunded".

Sudan has 10 million IDPs, including 7.7 million forced from their homes by the current conflict, they said.

More than four million have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

- 'Living nightmare' -

Sudan is "the largest humanitarian catastrophe facing our world and also the least remembered", the IOM's regional director Othman Belbeisi, speaking from Port Sudan, told a media briefing in Geneva.

He said 71 percent of returns had been to Al-Jazira state, with eight percent to Khartoum.

Other returnees were mostly heading for Sennar state.

Both Al-Jazira and Sennar are located southeast of the capital.

"We expect 2.1 million to return to Khartoum by the end of this year but this will depend on many factors, especially the security situation and the ability to restore services," Belbeisi said.

With the RSF holding nearly all of the western Darfur region, Kordofan in the south has become the war's main battleground in recent weeks.

He said the "vicious, horrifying civil war continues to take lives with impunity", imploring the warring factions to put down their guns.

"The war has unleashed hell for millions and millions of ordinary people," he said.

"Sudan is a living nightmare. The violence needs to stop."

- 'Massive' UXO contamination -

After visiting Khartoum and the Egyptian border, Mamadou Dian Balde, the UNHCR's regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan crisis, said people were coming back to destroyed public infrastructure, making rebuilding their lives extremely challenging.

Those returning from Egypt were typically coming back "empty handed", he said, speaking from Nairobi.

Luca Renda, UNDP's resident representative in Sudan, warned of further cholera outbreaks in Khartoum if broken services were not restored.

"What we need is for the international community to support us," he said.

Renda said around 1,700 wells needed rehabilitating, while at least six Khartoum hospitals and at least 35 schools needed urgent repairs.

He also sounded the alarm on the "massive" amount of unexploded ordnance littering the city and the need for decontamination.

He said anti-personnel mines had also been found in at least five locations in Khartoum.

"It will take years to fully decontaminate the city," he said, speaking from Port Sudan.