Page 13 - AfrElec Week 29 2022
P. 13
AfrElec HYDRO AfrElec
El Sisi courts Biden’s support on
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
EGYPT EGYPT’S President Abdel Fatah El Sisi encour- Trilateral negotiations between Egypt, Sudan
aged US President Joe Biden to support his and Ethiopia are still stumbling. The last session
country’s position concerning the filling and between the three countries was held in mid-
operation of the controversial Grand Ethiopian 2021 under the auspices of the African Union
Renaissance Dam (GERD) during their first (AU) in Kinshasa, without reaching an agree-
ever meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The dam, ment. Consequently, Cairo and Khartoum took
which threatens to deprive Egypt of its histor- the matter to the UN Security Council, which
ical quota of water from the Blue Nile during issued a statement in mid-September 2021 urg-
the third-stage of its filling operation, remains a ing Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to resume negoti-
thorny issue between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. ations under the sponsorship of the AU, with the
This comes after Ethiopia announced in aim of finalising an agreement that is acceptable
mid-June that it had completed 88% of the con- and binding to all the parties, as soon as possible,
struction work on the GERD, and was looking on filling and operating the GERD.
forward to the actual completion of its construc-
tion by the end of 2023.
Week 28 14•July•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P13
