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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
After a month-long hiatus, trilateral negotiations between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt resumed on Sunday over the filling and operations of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile River.
The South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation called the meeting to discuss issues related to the dam. South Africa is the current chair of the Bureau of the African Union.
The three countries have been in talks under the mediation of the African Union since June last year after Washington’s rounds of negotiations with the help of the United States and the World Bank failed.
The latest round of talks brought together the three countries’ ministers of foreign affairs and water, as well as experts assigned by the pan-African body, Ethiopian Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy Seleshi Bekele said in a tweet.
“Construction of the GERD is now 78% complete,” he said, adding that talks focused on the rules and guidelines for the dam’s first annual filling and operation.
Egypt has opposed the GERD since construction began in 2011, saying the hydroelectric plan would reduce the flow of water downstream. Ethiopia argues that the dam would be vital to address the country’s acute shortage of electricity for domestic and industrial use.
Ethiopia also plans to export electricity from the more than 6,000 megawatts that will be generated. It will begin testing two turbines in the middle of this year.
The latest talks came amid border tensions between Ethiopia and Sudan after the Sudanese army crossed into Ethiopian territories over the past two weeks.
Sudan claimed that it only reclaimed the territories it now occupies through the use of military force, while Ethiopia urged Sudan to withdraw its forces from the disputed border lands.
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