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The move could worsen Ethiopia’s dispute with Egypt and Sudan over Ethiopia’s Great Renaissance Dam, which Cairo says could threaten its main water supply.
Ethiopia has banned all flights over a huge dam it is building on the Blue Nile River for safety reasons. The head of its civil aviation authority has said, as the president of the country said that the project would begin to generate energy in the next 12 months.
Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over the filling and operation of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which remains unresolved although the reservoir behind the dam began to fill in July.
“All flights have been banned to secure the dam,” Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority Director General Wesenyeleh Hunegnaw told the Reuters news agency by phone on Monday. He declined to elaborate on the reasons behind the move, which could make the long-running dispute worse.
In a speech to Parliament later on Monday, Ethiopia’s President Sahle-Work Zewde said: “This year will be a year in which Ethiopia’s Great Renaissance Dam will start generating power with the two turbines.”
He also said that work is underway to allow a second filling of the giant hydroelectric dam in the next 12 months.
In July, Ethiopia said it had achieved its first year of filling the dam thanks to rains in the area.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the United Nations last month that the country “has no intention” of harming Sudan and Egypt with the dam, days after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi reiterated his concern over the draft.
Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan failed to reach an agreement on the operation of the dam before Addis Ababa began filling the reservoir behind it in July.
The dam is at the center of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s largest energy exporter.
The structure is about 15 km (nine miles) from Ethiopia’s border with Sudan on the Blue Nile, a tributary of the Nile River, which provides Egypt’s 100 million people with about 90 percent of their fresh water.
The United States decided last month to cut $ 100 million in aid to Ethiopia amid the dispute over the dam.
An anonymous US State Department official said at the time that the decision to suspend some funding for Ethiopia was due to concerns about Ethiopia’s unilateral decision to start filling the dam ahead of a deal.
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