Al-Jazeera correspondent in Addis Ababa reported that the Renaissance Dam negotiations were suspended shortly after their resumption at noon on Sunday, while Sudan warned Ethiopia not to proceed to filling the dam again before reaching an agreement.
The negotiations stalled due to the depth of differences between the three countries, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, forcing the African Union to lift the session, which was taking place via closed-circuit television with the participation of the ministers of irrigation and foreign affairs from the concerned parties and with the participation of international experts.
The session was discussing the report of the technical committees of the three countries on the Renaissance Dam, in an effort to reach a binding agreement on the rules of mobilization and operation.
Earlier, African diplomatic sources revealed to the island that the three countries discussed the African Union document, which was presented on January 3.
Before the meeting, Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas warned Ethiopia of the second mobilization of the Renaissance Dam without a previous agreement.
For his part, Ethiopian Minister of Irrigation and Energy, Seleshi Bakli, said that his country would benefit from the waters of the Nile, and would implement development projects in its regions in order to achieve sustainable development.
A new dam
This came after he and the President of Amhara Region laid the foundation stone for the "Yagma Matcha" Dam on a tributary of the Blue Nile, the main resource of the Nile River.
The storage capacity of the new dam is 55 million cubic meters, and its construction is expected to be completed within 3 years at a financial cost estimated at $ 125 million.
Once completed, the dam will have the capacity to develop 7,000 hectares (70 square kilometers) of land, and benefit more than 28,000 families.
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Addis Ababa, Mohamed Taha Tawakkol, said that Ethiopia believes that it is under "attack" by parties that want to prevent it from exploiting the Nile in development projects.
He added that Addis Ababa accuses the two downstream countries (Egypt and Sudan) of working to deprive them of benefiting from the Nile as a source country, and stresses that building dams is a natural right for them.
He pointed out that the Ethiopian TV broadcast today, Sunday, a report dealing with the suffering of the population and their resort to lighting with firewood in light of being deprived of electricity, in order to confirm the people's right to benefit from the Nile in generating electricity.
He explained that Addis Ababa wants a comprehensive agreement with Egypt and Sudan, or an agreement that includes all the Nile Basin countries.