US intervenes in Nile dam deadlock
Publish date: 04 November 2019
Issue Number: 848
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Diplomacy
The Trump administration has invited Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to a meeting in Washington on Wednesday to try to break the deadlock in negotiations over a giant hydropower dam on Ethiopia's Blue Nile. Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said his country has accepted the invitation to address the project that is the source of an escalating spat between the African countries. Voice of America reports that it is not clear if the other two countries have agreed to attend. Cairo is worried that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), under construction near Ethiopia's border with Sudan, will restrict supplies of already scarce Nile waters on which it is almost entirely dependent. In recent weeks, Egypt has called for an external mediator on the issue, saying three-way talks have been exhausted.