Sudan renewed its rejection of any unilateral measures in the Renaissance Dam, and called on Ethiopia to continue negotiating in good faith, at a time when Addis Ababa called on the European Union to take a neutral position in the dam negotiations, which announced yesterday, Monday, the completion of the second phase of filling it despite the rejection of both Cairo and Khartoum.

Today, Tuesday, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok stressed the need to reach a binding legal agreement on the Renaissance Dam in line with international law.

Hamdok said, in a televised speech today, that his country will spare no effort to reach a binding legal agreement on filling and operating the dam that preserves its national interests.

He also called to stay away from what he described as unilateral will

Prayer at the border

In a related context, the Chief of Staff of the Sudanese Army, Muhammad Othman Al-Hussein, performed the Eid prayer in the border areas with Ethiopia, which is witnessing a conflict between the two countries, and said that these areas restored security and stability after their liberation and restoration, as he put it.


The Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation said yesterday that it rejects unilateral measures by Ethiopia, and stressed that it is not too late to reach an agreement on the Renaissance Dam crisis.

The ministry also announced in a statement its rejection of Ethiopia's unilateral measures regarding the Renaissance Dam, which "impose a fait accompli and ignore the concerns of its partners in the Nile River."

An invitation to neutrality

On the other hand, Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Demeke Mokkinen called on the European Union to take a neutral position, as an observer of the negotiating process regarding the Renaissance Dam.

In his meeting with European Union Special Representative Anita Weber in Addis Ababa yesterday, Mokkinen said that the second filling of the dam took place in accordance with the Declaration of Principles, and during the rainy season, without causing tangible harm to downstream countries.

The Ethiopian News Agency reported that the meeting included discussing the border dispute with Sudan;

The Deputy Prime Minister said that Sudan imposed its demands by force, which is a violation of international law, as he put it.


Yesterday, Ethiopia announced the end of the second phase of the initial mobilization of the Renaissance Dam, and attributed the speedy completion of the process to the heavy rains that fell on the Ethiopian plateau.

She stressed that she did not resort to closing the dam's gates, as was expected, which allowed the passage of abundant quantities of water into the Blue Nile, and forced the Sudanese irrigation authorities to get rid of the excess water in the Roseires Dam lake.

At a time when Ethiopia said that it had stored the targeted quantities of water at this stage, Egypt and Sudan questioned this, and said that the level of current construction of the Renaissance Dam does not allow storing the quantities that were specified in advance, which are 13 billion cubic meters of water.

On July 8, the UN Security Council concluded that the Renaissance Dam negotiations should be intensively revived under the auspices of the African Union, to sign a binding legal agreement that meets the needs of Egypt and Sudan with Ethiopia.

The three countries exchange accusations of being responsible for the failure of negotiations on the dam sponsored by the African Union for months, within a negotiating process that began about 10 years ago.