Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is heading to Addis Ababa this week to participate in an African Union summit. Mr. Sisi will also reportedly undertake direct, high-level talks with Ethiopia’s prime minister on the future of the Nile River, and Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam in particular. The hydroelectric project has been a source of friction […]
Is Egypt softening stance toward Ethiopia’s mega-dam?
After months of heightened tensions and exchanges of occasionally bellicose rhetoric between Egypt and Ethiopia over the latter’s plan to build a massive hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile, the diplomatic row between two of Africa’s most powerful states might be cooling. Egypt’s minister for water resources and irrigation, Dr. Muhammad ‘Abd al-Mutalib, told press […]
Will Ethiopia’s new dam dry up good will with Egypt and Sudan?
Ethiopia has started work on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a massive project which, when completed, will house the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa. The dam, which will deviate the course of the Blue Nile, has raised a great deal of concern in Egypt and Sudan. Egypt gets well over half of its water […]