Sudan Asks UNSC to ‘Discourage Ethiopia of Filling GERD’
ADDIS ABEBA – Sudan’s Foreign Minister Asma M. Abdalla has asked the UN Security Council to discourage Ethiopia from filling the reservoir of its hydroelectric dam before a comprehensive deal.
The multi-billion US dollar Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project is currently 74 percent complete. Addis Ababa is planning to start filling up its reservoir starting from July.
Sudanese minister sent the message to the head of the Security Council on Tuesday asking its members to “discourage all parties from taking unilateral actions including filling the GERD prior to concluding a comprehensive agreement”.
The message also includes details of the initiative recently adopted by Sudan and represented in the contacts made by the Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdouk, with leaders of Egypt and Ethiopia that culminated in the agreement to resume ministerial-level negotiations.
Ethiopia is in constant talks with Sudanese officials on how to resume the negotiation.
On Wednesday, it’s Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy Seleshi Bekele held a virtual meeting with his Sudanese counterpart, Yassir A. Mohammed, discussed on the way forward for the resumption of the trilateral negotiations.
“The agenda of the meeting was discussing the procedural aspects of resuming the trilateral negotiations and the key concerns from each country,” ministry of water said in a statement sent to the Monitor.
In this regard, the ministry said two sides agreed to hold frequent bilateral meetings leading to the trilateral negotiations as soon as possible.
The two sides also exchanged views on key issues and concerns regarding the outstanding issues of the negotiation over the hydroelectric Dam, Ethiopia is building on River Nile.
