Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese leaders have pledged to resolve a long-standing dispute that arose from the Grand Renaissance Dam that Addis Ababa is building along its share of River Nile.
Presidents Abdel Fatah el-Sisi (Egypt), Hassan Omar al-Bashir (Sudan) and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn (Ethiopia) met in Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the 30th African Union Summit, from where they said they would work together to reach an amicable solution.
“As responsible leaders, we met and we spoke. We agreed that there will be no harm on anyone. What’s in the interest of Ethiopia is in the interest of Egypt; and what’s in the interest of Sudan is in the interest of Egypt too,” el-Sisi told journalists after the meeting.
Cairo has long expressed fears that building the dam will threaten water supplies that have fed Egypt’s agriculture and economy for thousands of years.
Ethiopia however hopes the dam will help make it Africa’s biggest power exporter and has played down fears that it will threaten Egypt’s water supply.
The North African country in December sought help from the United Nations in the resolving of the row with Ethiopia.
Earlier this year, President el-Sisi said that his country would not go to war with her neighbours over the dispute, saying a solution would be found in due course.
Ethiopian PM Desalegn traveled to Egypt on 17 January for talks, but no substantive solution was reported.
The three nations agreed to set up a mutual fund to invest in infrastructure across the region and complete a technical study of the dam’s environmental impact within a month.
They also pledged to meet every year to tackle any future disagreements.
