Ethiopia announced on Sunday, September 10, that it had completed filling the Great Renaissance Dam it built on the Nile, reigniting tensions with Egypt, which condemned a “unilateral” and “illegal” operation.
Sudan, another country downstream of this mega dam believed to be the largest in Africa, did not respond Sunday night.
In recent years, Khartoum and Cairo, which view the dam as a threat to their water supplies, have repeatedly called on Ethiopia to stop filling the Grand Renaissance Dam (Gerd) reservoir until a tripartite agreement is reached on its operating methods.
Negotiations between the three countries, which had been suspended since April 2021, resumed on August 27.
“It gives me great pleasure to announce that the fourth and final water filling of the Renaissance Dam has been successfully completed,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Sunday in a message posted on the Social X (formerly Twitter) network became. .
“There were a lot of challenges, we were pushed back a lot. We had an internal challenge and external pressure. We reached (this stage) by facing God,” he added.
“I believe we will complete what we have planned,” said the Ethiopian leader.
The Prime Minister’s Office then released several photos showing Abiy Ahmed at the dam site with the message in English: “Our national perseverance has paid off against all odds!”
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry condemned this operation.
“Filling the Renaissance Dam reservoir without agreement with the two downstream countries (Egypt and Sudan) is (…) illegal” and “will strain negotiations between the three countries,” he said in a press release.
Existential threat
With this mega hydroelectric power plant (1.8 km long, 145 meters high), which can ultimately generate more than 5,000 megawatts, Ethiopia wants to double its electricity production, to which only around half of its approximately 120 million inhabitants currently have access.
The Gerd, considered vital by Addis Ababa and costing around 3.5 billion euros, has been at the center of a regional conflict since Ethiopia began its construction in 2011.
After a long standoff, negotiations between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan resumed in Cairo on August 27, with the aim of reaching an agreement “taking into account the interests and concerns of the three countries,” the Egyptian Ministry of Water and Irrigation said .
A few weeks earlier, in mid-July, at a meeting on the sidelines of a summit of African heads of state and government, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and Abiy Ahmed gave themselves four months to reach an agreement on the filling and operation of the dam to the war in Sudan.
Egypt views this mega dam as an existential threat as the country relies on the Nile for 97% of its water needs.
Khartoum’s position has changed in recent years.
After several months of a common front with Egypt in 2022, Sudanese leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane said last January that he “agrees on all points” with Abiy Ahmed regarding the Gerd.
But since mid-April, Sudan has been gripped by a deadly conflict.
For its part, Ethiopia assures that its mega dam in the northwest of the country, about thirty kilometers from the border with Sudan, will not disrupt the river’s flow.
With AFP