The leaders of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan agreed during a mini-African summit held on Tuesday via video to resume negotiations to reach a comprehensive agreement on the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, but Addis Ababa announced at the same time the completion of the first stage of filling the dam reservoir due to rain.

"It has become clear in the past two weeks during the rainy season that the filling of the Renaissance Dam has been achieved in its first stage," the office of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed said in a statement, adding that the water began to flow naturally.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister stated that the extraordinary African summit ended with "all parties reaching a great mutual understanding that paves the way for a breakthrough agreement."

Accordingly, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan will hold further technical discussions on mobilizing the dam in preparation for a comprehensive agreement.

The summit was held under the chairmanship of South African President Cyril Ramafuza - whose country is chairing the African Union at its current session - and participated by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdock, in addition to the team of observers for the dam negotiations from the African Union and the European Union And the United States.

Satellite imagery showed the start of water gathering in the dam reservoir in the past days (Reuters)

Egypt calls for a binding agreement

For its part, the Egyptian presidency announced in a statement that it was agreed at the end of the summit to continue negotiations, and focus at the present time on "developing a binding legal agreement on the rules for filling and operating the Renaissance Dam."

She added that the three countries will work at a later stage to formulate a comprehensive agreement for all aspects of joint cooperation between them on the use of Nile water.

For his part, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdouk said that the virtual summit meeting was fruitful. He added via Twitter that the meeting ended with understanding to continue negotiating to reach an agreement to fill and run the dam.

Today was a fruitful meeting at the African mini-summit on the Renaissance Dam and we ended with understanding to continue negotiating to reach an agreement to fill and operate the dam.

- Abdalla Hamdok (@SudanPMHamdok) July 21, 2020

At the same time, Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas stated that it was agreed during the summit to disengage the future development projects of Ethiopia on the Blue Nile and the initial filling and operation of the Renaissance Dam.

Sadiq al-Mahdi's comment

On the other hand, Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, former Prime Minister of Sudan and head of the Umma Party, told the island during the "Today Meeting" program that will be broadcast later that Egypt and Sudan made a mistake in distributing Nile water during the 1959 agreement, which led to a counter-alliance from upstream countries.

Al-Mahdi said that there is a need for a new comprehensive agreement for all countries of the Nile Basin, which puts special consideration for Egypt because its dependence on the Nile is greater.

Sadiq al-Mahdi calls for a new agreement that includes all countries of the Nile Basin (the island)

The Renaissance Dam project on the Blue Nile has caused tension in the Nile Basin region since Ethiopia began building it in 2011.

Egypt sees the project as a threat to its vital share of the Nile water, while Ethiopia considers it necessary for development and doubling its electricity production.

Tensions increased after satellite images showed in the past days that the water levels behind the dam are rising.