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11:03 a.m. M.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
I wrote – Rana Osama:
Ethiopia informed the United States envoy to Sudan, Donald Booth, that it will proceed with the process of the second filling of the Renaissance dam next July, in continuity with its intransigence and its defiance of the warnings from Egypt and Sudan about the possible negative repercussions of the dam. dam.
During the biweekly press conference by Ethiopia’s official Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ambassador Dina Mufti, on Tuesday, she said Addis Ababa informed the US envoy to Sudan that it will proceed with the second filling of the Renaissance Dam lake and that it will form part of the planned construction of the dam.
He noted that Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Damaki Mekonnen held talks, which he called “successful”, with the US envoy, which addressed opportunities for the United States’ contribution to power the stagnant Renaissance dam. negotiations in accordance with the Declaration of Principles signed between the three countries in March 2015.
He explained that Mekonnen informed the US envoy about Ethiopia’s need to benefit from its development resources, noting that more than 60 percent of Ethiopians lack electricity.
As Ethiopia attempts to impose a fait accompli in the Renaissance dam crisis, Ethiopia’s foreign minister stated that Ethiopia “respects international law on the use of transcontinental rivers”, reiterating, without evidence, that the dam does not harm the two downstream. countries (Egypt and Sudan), according to the Mufti.
The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman added that “the resolution of differences must be through negotiations, and any changes in the negotiation mechanisms must be in accordance with the Declaration of Principles.”
Sudan proposed a proposal to form a quadripartite mechanism that includes, together with the African Union, the United States of America, the European Union and the United Nations, to mediate a solution to the crisis.
While the proposal received broad Egyptian and international support, Ethiopia rejected it, calling it “sterile and useless.”
On Monday, the head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council in Sudan, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, called on the United States and the European Union to help reach a joint agreement on the Renaissance dam.
Previously, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi emphasized that the Renaissance dam is “a matter of existence,” and emphasized the need to seek to reach “as soon as possible” a binding legal agreement that regulates the filling and operation of the dam, until now. of any unilateral approach that seeks to impose a fait accompli and ignore it. The fundamental rights of peoples “.
During a press conference with his Burundian counterpart, Evarist Ndayishimi, Al-Sisi referred to the existing cooperation between the two countries in the field of water resources and irrigation, and the joint efforts to maximize the sustainable use of resources. from the Nile River, highlighting the situation in Egypt. vision “to make the Nile River a source of cooperation and development, as a livelihood for all the peoples of the Basin countries.” Nile “.
A week ago, Dr. Mohamed Abdel Ati, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, reiterated Egypt’s rejection of any unilateral action by Ethiopia in the Renaissance dam crisis.
Ethiopia had announced that the second filling of the dam would take place in the upcoming rainy season from July to next October, emphasizing that “the second filling period should not be extended in any way.”
Ethiopian Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, Seleshi Bekele, said at a symposium marking the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Renaissance Dam, that the filling will be at a rate of 13.5 billion cubic meters (approximately 3 times the volume of the initial filling carried out last year by 4.9 billion cubic meters).
Ethiopia has so far completed 79% of the dam’s construction.
