{"id":117831,"date":"2021-04-08T16:22:39","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T08:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=117831"},"modified":"2021-04-08T16:22:41","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T08:22:41","slug":"egypt-warns-of-potential-for-conflict-over-giant-ethiopian-dam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=117831","title":{"rendered":"Egypt warns of potential for conflict over giant Ethiopian dam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Egyptian<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAIRO\/KHARTOUM\/ADDIS ABABA, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned of the risk of conflict over Ethiopia\u2019s giant dam on the Blue Nile after talks involving the two countries and Sudan ended without progress.

Ethiopia is pinning its hopes of economic development and power generation on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Egypt fears will imperil its supply from the Nile. Sudan is also concerned about the impact on its own water flows.

Delegations from the three governments met earlier this week in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo but failed to bridge their differences.

Speaking at the opening of a new government complex in CAIRO, Sisi said Sudan and Egypt were coordinating on the issue and that \u201ccooperation and agreement are much better than anything else\u201d.

Referring to past regional conflicts, he said: \u201cWe have witnessed the costs of any confrontation.\u201d

\u201cI am telling our brothers in Ethiopia, let\u2019s not reach the point where you touch a drop of Egypt\u2019s water, because all options are open,\u201d he said.

In ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia\u2019s water minister Seleshi Bekele sought to defuse tensions.

\u201cThere is no need to enter an unnecessary war. A war can\u2019t start because of water. Water flows if you fight today, it\u2019ll continue to flow tomorrow,\u201d he told reporters.

In a text message, he rebuffed accusations that Ethiopia was using another country\u2019s water.

\u201cWe are not utilizing water generated from Egypt or Sudan as water doesn\u2019t flow upstream to Ethiopia,\u201d he said.

\u201cWe are utilizing water from Ethiopia for our dire need following equitable and reasonable utilization without causing significant harm to our neighbours.\u201d

Egypt and Sudan, in statements after the Kinshasa meeting, accused Ethiopia of intransigence on restarting negotiations in advance of a second filling of the dam this summer.

Ethiopia said on Tuesday it could not enter into an agreement that infringed on its rights to utilize the Nile.

Sudan\u2019s state news agency SUNA reported that the Sudan government, which is also locked in a border dispute with Ethiopia, had asked that Ethiopian peacekeepers on a United Nations mission in the south of Sudan be replaced.

\u201cThere is a path of political escalation and all options are open to Sudan according to international law,\u201d including turning to the U.N. Security Council, Sudanese irrigation minister Yasser Abbas told a news conference in KHARTOUM.

Sudan and Egypt had proposed including the European Union, the United States and the United Nations as mediators in addition to ongoing African Union facilitation of the talks. Both countries said Ethiopia rejected the proposal during the meeting, which Seleshi said was part of an attempt to cause delay, according to state news agency FANA.

Last week, Sisi said there would be \u201cinconceivable instability in the region\u201d if Egypt\u2019s water supply were affected by the dam. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi CAIRO\/KHARTOUM\/ADDIS ABABA, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned of the risk of conflict over Ethiopia\u2019s giant dam on the Blue Nile after talks involving the two countries and Sudan ended without progress. Ethiopia is pinning its hopes of economic development and power generation on the Grand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":117834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117831"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/117834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}