On the eve of an African Union virtual meeting to deliberate on the progress made in the resolution of a dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi informed US President Donald Trump on the latest developments in this regard, a statement by the Egyptian spokesperson said.
According to the US State Department, Trump reiterated the US commitment to facilitate a "fair and equitable" deal among Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan on the GERD.
Meanwhile, the African Union initiated its final attempt to resolve the dispute between Cairo and Addis Ababa concerning the dam.
Tuesday’s virtual meeting of the AU Bureau of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government will be chaired by AU Chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa, also serving as the President of South Africa.
“The meeting will take place within the context of the AU’s efforts to strengthen the negotiations and to infuse new momentum towards the resolution of all the outstanding legal and technical matters, including (but not limited to) the issue of the future development on the Blue Nile upstream as well as the future dispute resolution mechanism,” the South African president said.
Sudanese sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Ethiopia already began filling the dam unilaterally.
“This is a move that Egypt and Sudan reject,” the sources said.
Experts told Asharq Al-Awsat that Addis Ababa might have already retained about 4.9 billion cubic meters of water, an amount that equals the share of water that the three countries agreed to hold back during the first year.
Ethiopia’s move came although a timetable for filling the dam is yet to be agreed at deadlocked negotiations.
African affairs expert Dr. Hamdi Abdulrahman told Asharq Al-Awsat that he expects Tuesday’s AU meeting to come up with a joint mediatory committee, including observers from the EU and the US.
Meanwhile, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said that the European Union was also playing a role to help resolve the dispute.
"We are engaged to help solve the tensions between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt on water management of the Nile river," he said in a tweet on his official account.
Beyond this case, water will probably become one of the main geopolitical challenges of our century.
