African Union urged to resolve Egypt-Ethiopia dam issue: Report

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile river would continue to be built by Ethiopia, located in the Horn of Africa, as confirmed by the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry on Thursday. This statement comes amid the ongoing protests from Egypt over the Egypt-Ethiopia dam dispute, reported the National News. Notably, the statement comes as a response to Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry who called on Arab nations to step in to settle the dispute over the dam. Although, An Ethiopian statement claimed that as "the Nile is an African river”, the row over the dam must be settled through the African Union while discussing the Egypt-Ethiopia dam dispute.

The last round of discussion took place in 2021 after several consecutive negotiations. In that meeting, both nations failed to reach a conclusion on the dam's operation. However, Addis Ababa hoped to access the dam for the main purpose of generating and selling electricity to its power-starved Nile basin neighbours. Ethiopia has emphasised the need for the dam which is more of a necessity as 60% of its people live without access to power. 

Egypt-Ethiopia dam dispute

The dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been continuing for a long time now and Ethiopia has consistently refused to be bound by an agreement however have agreed to consider “recommendations” from Egypt on the functioning of the dam. According to the Ethiopian authorities, they have rights over the river’s main tributary, the Blue Nile, due to its origin at the country's Lake Tana. But according to the counterpart, Shoukry: “The dispute over the Renaissance Dam is linked to Arab national security.” While addressing the Arab League meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, he requested the member states to put pressure on Ethiopia to stop its “unilateral and unco-operative practices and embrace the necessary political will to accept one of the compromise solutions offered on the negotiating table”, reported The national news. The Ethiopian government replied with the statement the next day, Thursday, where they emphasised that the matter over the dispute on the dam must stop being presented before non-African bodies such as the United Nations Security Council and the Arab League. “It is an African dispute and its solution will be Africa,” read the statement.