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Sudan: Ethiopia's filling of Renaissance Dam ‘direct threat’ to national security

Sunday, 07 February 2021 7:28 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 07 February 2021 10:24 AM ]

This picture taken on January 3, 2021 shows a view of the Nile River in Egypt's southern city of Aswan. (Photo by AFP)

Sudan has urged neighboring Ethiopia to reconsider its plan to fill the massive reservoir at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in July, saying the move would amount to a national security threat.

Sudanese Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Yasser Abbas said on Saturday that such a move would not only threaten the country's water supply but its national security as well.

The comments by Abbas marked the latest expression of Sudan's concerns about Addis Ababa’s decision to fill the dam's reservoir without first gaining the consent of Khartoum and Cairo.

“The filling of the Renaissance Dam by one side next July represents a direct threat to Sudan’s national security,” Abbas told Reuters.

In a separate interview with AFP, Abbas said that the filling of the dam would also “threaten the lives of half the population in central Sudan, as well as irrigation water for agricultural projects and power generation from [Sudan’s] Roseires Dam.”

The official said Khartoum had proposed to its neighbors that the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and the African Union act as mediators to end the dispute between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia.

The warnings come amid increased tensions between Addis Ababa and Khartoum.

Sudan’s military said in December that several of its officers were ambushed by Ethiopian “forces and militias” during a security patrol of the Al-Fashaqa border region, where Ethiopian farmers cultivate fertile land claimed by Sudan, leaving four dead and more than 20 wounded.

Both sides deployed tanks and heavy artillery to the region along the border, accusing each other of pushing further into the disputed territory.

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GERD has been erected on the Blue Nile River which heads northwest into Sudan where it connects with the White Nile, forming the famous Nile River which flows through Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria.

Ethiopia started work on the dam in 2011, which is rated at 6.45 gigawatts, and will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa when completed, as well as the seventh largest in the world.

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