The Ethiopian Irrigation Minister Silesi accused Egypt of changing Egypt’s information about the Renaissance Dam and disseminating it as appropriate to its media, and the Ethiopian Prime Minister announced that the process of filling and operating the dam will begin within the next two weeks.
This comes after the African Union announced reaching agreements on the dam, most notably Addis Ababa postponing its mobilization and returning to negotiations according to an African mechanism to reach a binding agreement.
The mini-African summit was held at the invitation of South African President Cyril Ramafuza, in which the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdock and his Ethiopian counterpart participated, as well as the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his counterpart in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi, the President of Mali Ibrahim Abu Bakr Kita, and the Chairperson of the Commission African Union Moses Faki.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abe Ahmed said in a tweet on Twitter that he had made a fruitful phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on development issues, and confirmed his appreciation for France's continuing support for Ethiopia's development endeavors.
An Ethiopian source assured the island that the consultations between the two leaders touched on developments in the Renaissance Dam negotiations, especially since France is chairing the new session of the UN Security Council.
For his part, the president of the current session of the African Union, President of South Africa Cyril Ramafuza, said that the meeting of the African Union on the file of the Renaissance Dam crisis was very constructive.
He added that it was agreed between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to conclude an agreement on the dam in the next few weeks, through a process led by the African Union.
A film in seven languages, and
while the file of the Renaissance Dam ranges between escalation and calm, the Egyptian government released a film talking about what it said was Egypt's historical right to the waters of the Nile in seven languages.
The film stated that the Renaissance Dam would reserve water five times greater than Ethiopia's needs, and would deprive Egypt of 20 billion cubic meters annually of its water share.
In this film, the Egyptian government calls on all countries of the world to "support life".
The Egyptian Ministry of Immigration said that it launched the film in seven languages to confirm Egypt's historical and legal rights in the waters of the Nile and to refute Ethiopian allegations.
The Minister of Immigration invited members of the Egyptian communities abroad to share the film and publish it on a wide scale, each according to the country of residence and according to its language.
The Egyptian presidency had said that President Al-Sisi, Hamdock, and Abi Ahmed agreed to form a governmental committee of the three countries with international participation, to formulate a final legal agreement binding all parties on the rules for filling and operating the Renaissance Dam, provided that Addis Ababa would refrain from any unilateral actions, including mobilization Dam before reaching this agreement.
A statement on behalf of the Egyptian presidency stated that this preliminary agreement will be sent to the Security Council to take it into account when its meeting is held to discuss the Renaissance Dam issue next Monday.
For his part, the Sudanese cabinet affirmed the agreement to postpone the filling of the Renaissance Dam reservoir until after signing an agreement that preserves the interests of the three countries, as well as starting negotiations at the level of technical committees immediately, with a view to reaching an agreement within two weeks.
A vital project and
the Renaissance Dam that Addis Ababa began building in 2011 will, upon its completion, become the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa, but this vital project has sparked sharp differences between Ethiopia and both Sudan and Egypt, with which they share the Nile waters.
Although the three countries entered into negotiations on this dam, they have not yet been able to reach an agreement, especially on the rules for filling and operating the dam's reservoir.
As negotiations faltered, Addis Ababa announced its intention to start filling the Dam Lake from next July, in a step Cairo had responded by referring the file to the UN Security Council.
Ethiopia says that the electricity power expected to be generated from the Renaissance Dam that it is building on the Blue Nile is of vital importance in order to push development projects in the poor country with a population of more than 100 million people.
But Egypt says the dam threatens the flow of the Nile waters, most of which originate from the Blue Nile, and its repercussions may be devastating to its economy, water and food resources.