Egypt complains to UN of Ethiopia’s unilateral measures on filling of Nile dam

Cairo, Egypt | XINHUA | The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Egypt has sent a letter to the UN Security Council to reaffirm its “complete rejection” of Ethiopia’s unilateral measures on the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

The letter sent on Friday accuses Ethiopia of frustrating efforts to reach a tripartite agreement on the rules of filling and operating the dam and attempting to impose “a fait accompli” on the two downstream countries Egypt and Sudan “through unilateral measures and steps that constitute a clear violation of the rules of international law,” according to a ministry statement.

Ethiopia plans to go ahead with the second filling of the GERD in July, while Egypt and Sudan are concerned that the move might affect their share of the Nile water resources.

Last week, Egyptian Manpower Minister Mohamed Saafan told a virtual conference of the International Labor Organization that Ethiopia’s unilateral filling of the dam without a prior agreement would significantly harm the agriculture sector in the two downstream countries.

Decade-long negotiations failed to reach an agreement regulating the filling and operation of the dam, including those hosted earlier by the United States and recently by the African Union.

Egypt and Sudan currently seek to form an international quartet that includes the African Union, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations to mediate in the tripartite GERD talks, but the proposal has been rejected by Ethiopia.

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XINHUA