The African Union has called for an urgent agreement over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), the project that has stoked tensions between Ethiopia and its downstream neighbours, Egypt and Sudan.
It said on Friday that the most recent virtual talks, held on Tuesday and overseen by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, showed progress. But Ethiopia rejected the call for a binding agreement and said that it will only accept a guiding agreement.
The AU underscored “the importance of cooperation as a basis for integration” for the prosperity of all three countries.
Egypt and Sudan view the dam as a threat to their water supplies, while Ethiopia considers it essential for its electrification and development.
Ethiopia planned to begin filling the dam's reservoir this month, in the middle of its rainy season.
Ethiopia said on Tuesday that its first-year target has been reached for filling a dam on the Blue Nile River.
The announcement from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office indicated that enough water had accumulated to enable Ethiopia to test the dam's first two turbines – a milestone on the way to producing electricity.
But it risked drawing the ire of both Cairo and Khartoum, which had insisted that a trilateral agreement on the dam's operations be reached before Addis Ababa began impounding water in the dam's reservoir.
"It has become evident over the past two weeks in the rainy season that the Gerd first year filling is achieved and the dam under construction is already overtopping," Mr Abiy's office said in a statement.
The project has been a source of tension in the Nile River basin since Ethiopia broke ground on it in 2011.
Last week, Ethiopian officials acknowledged that water was gathering in the dam's reservoir, though officials said this was a "natural" part of the construction process.
The statement from Mr Abiy's office on Tuesday did not say if the first-year target had been hit through a "natural" process or through steps to expedite filling.
Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El Sisi said after the Tuesday mini-summit that Cairo had a “sincere desire” to resolve the dam dispute and its “points of contention”.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
'Munich: The Edge of War'
Director: Christian Schwochow
Starring: George MacKay, Jannis Niewohner, Jeremy Irons
Rating: 3/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Maestro
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBradley%20Cooper%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBradley%20Cooper%2C%20Carey%20Mulligan%2C%20Maya%20Hawke%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
More from Armen Sarkissian
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
