Ethiopia Says Completes Third Filling of Nile Mega-Dam

In this file photo taken on February 20, 2022, a general view of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in Guba, Ethiopia. (AFP)
In this file photo taken on February 20, 2022, a general view of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in Guba, Ethiopia. (AFP)
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Ethiopia Says Completes Third Filling of Nile Mega-Dam

In this file photo taken on February 20, 2022, a general view of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in Guba, Ethiopia. (AFP)
In this file photo taken on February 20, 2022, a general view of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in Guba, Ethiopia. (AFP)

Ethiopia announced Friday it has completed the third filling of its mega-dam on the Blue Nile, a new milestone that could raise further tensions with downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan.

The development comes a day after Ethiopia said it had launched electricity production from the second turbine at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in the northwest of the country.

"Today as you see behind me, the third filling is complete," Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said from the dam site in images broadcast on state television.

"The Nile is a gift of God given to us for Ethiopians to make use of it."

The massive $4.2 billion dam, set to be the largest hydro-electric scheme in Africa, has been at the center of a regional dispute ever since Ethiopia broke ground on the project in 2011.

There is still no agreement between Ethiopia and its downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan about the GERD's operations despite talks held under the auspices of the African Union.

Cairo and Khartoum view it as a threat because of their dependence on Nile waters.

But Ethiopia deems it essential for the electrification and development of Africa's second most populous nation.

It was one of Africa's fastest growing economies in recent years until war broke out in northern Ethiopia in November 2020 between federal government forces and Tigrayan rebels.

'Gifted nations'

There was no immediate reaction from Egypt or Sudan about Friday's development.

But Egypt, an arid nation which relies on the Nile for about 97 percent of its irrigation and drinking water, last month protested to the UN Security Council that the third filling was under way.

Abiy nevertheless sought to reassure Egypt and Sudan over the impact of dam.

"When we set out to build a dam on the Nile, we said from the beginning that we did not want to make the river our own," he said on Twitter.

"We hope that just like Ethiopia, the other gifted nations of the Nile, Sudan and Egypt, will get to utilize their share."

On Thursday, he had called for negotiations to reach an understanding on the dam but insisted the third filling was not causing any water shortages downstream.

The process of filling the GERD's vast reservoir began in 2020 and it now contains 22 billion cubic meters of water out of a total capacity of 74 billion.

"Compared to last year, we have reached 600 meters which is 25 meters higher than the previous filling," Abiy said Friday.

Almost complete

Ethiopia first began generating electricity from the GERD in February. Currently, the two operational turbines, out of a total of 13, have a capacity to generate 750 megawatts of electricity.

It is ultimately expected to produce more than 5,000 megawatts, more than doubling Ethiopia's current output.

Project manager Kifle Horo said Thursday that overall the dam was now more than 83 percent complete and that the goal was for it to be finished in the next two and a half years.

The structure is 145-metres (475 feet) high and 1.8 kilometers long, straddling the Nile tributary in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of northwestern Ethiopia, not far from the border with Sudan.

The project was initiated under former prime minister Meles Zenawi, the Tigrayan leader who ruled Ethiopia for more than two decades until his death in 2012.



Syria Detains Damascus-Based Leader of Prominent Palestinian Faction

Members of the Syria's security forces deploy during an operation in the edge of the town of Sharaya, south of Damascus, Wednesday April 30, 2025. (AP)
Members of the Syria's security forces deploy during an operation in the edge of the town of Sharaya, south of Damascus, Wednesday April 30, 2025. (AP)
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Syria Detains Damascus-Based Leader of Prominent Palestinian Faction

Members of the Syria's security forces deploy during an operation in the edge of the town of Sharaya, south of Damascus, Wednesday April 30, 2025. (AP)
Members of the Syria's security forces deploy during an operation in the edge of the town of Sharaya, south of Damascus, Wednesday April 30, 2025. (AP)

Syria on Saturday detained a prominent Damascus-based Palestinian official whose group was close to the government of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

Talal Naji, 79, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, or PFLP-GC, was detained Saturday morning shortly after he left his house with a driver and two guards, a Palestinian official told The Associated Press.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, added that shortly after Naji was detained near his home in the Mazze neighborhood, security officials came to his home and questioned two unarmed guards for about an hour.

A Syrian government official told the AP that Naji was taken for questioning and should be released later. The official spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The PFLP-GC became known for dramatic attacks against Israel, including the hijacking an El Al jetliner in 1968 and the machine gunning of another airliner at Zurich airport in 1969. In 1970, it planted a bomb on a Swissair jet that blew up on a flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv, killing all 47 on aboard.

Naji’s arrest comes nearly two weeks after Syrian authorities detained two members of the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. The group identified the two officials arrested at the time as its leader in Syria Khaled Khaled and another senior official Yasser Zafari. The Islamic Jihad took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that triggered the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Under Assad, several Palestinians factions were based in Syria and some of them remained after the fall of his 54-year Assad family in December.