Friday September 20, 2019
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s foreign ministry in a sharply worded statement dismisses Egypt’s latest proposal on a massive Nile River dam project as “against the sovereignty of Ethiopia.”
The statement issued Friday comes shortly after Egypt said a new round of talks over the soon-to-be-finished $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam failed to achieve progress.
Egypt fears Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam could reduce its share of the Nile, which serves as a lifeline for the country’s 100 million people. Ethiopia has roughly the same population and says the dam will help its economic development.
Ethiopia’s new statement says that “various new and harmful ideas that could harm the trust developed between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan should stop.”
The three countries are expected to hold technical negotiations from Sept. 30-Oct. 1 in Sudan.