Ethiopia Asks UN to Urge Egypt, Sudan to Resume Nile Dam Talks

(Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia told the United Nations Security Council that Egypt and Sudan aren’t negotiating in good faith and asked members to urge the governments to return to talks on a controversial Nile dam, according to a post on Twitter by Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry.

In an April 16 letter, Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen said the Security Council had supported the African Union-led talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam but Egypt and Sudan were “scuttling” talks about the dam’s filling and operations, and “internationalizing” the issue to increase pressure Ethiopia.

The two countries are downstream of the dam and have refused a data exchange initiative by Ethiopia before the second filling of the dam during the upcoming rainy season.

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Egypt’s irrigation ministry said in statement that Ethiopia’s “unilateral measures could harm the two downstream countries, due to the absence of a clear coordination mechanism between the three countries within the framework of a fair and binding legal agreement.”

Two days ago, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry began visits to several African countries including Kenya, Tunisia, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo to discuss the dam, according to the statement.

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