Ethiopia to start producing energy from the Renaissance Dam tomorrow

Ethiopia will start the process of generating power from the huge Renaissance Dam that it has built on the Blue Nile from Sunday, government officials announced to AFP.

The dam, which is expected to be Africa's largest project to generate electricity from water, has been at the center of a regional dispute since Ethiopia launched the project in 2011.

An Ethiopian government official said: "Tomorrow (Sunday) the first operation of generating electricity from the dam will begin."

Another official confirmed this information.

The downstream countries, Ethiopia's neighbors, Egypt and Sudan, fear the dam's repercussions on their water security, while Addis Ababa stresses its importance for electricity generation and development.

There has been no comment yet from Cairo or Khartoum, which are demanding Ethiopia to sign a binding legal agreement on filling and operating the dam, since its construction began.

The three governments held several rounds of talks that so far have not led to any indication of a breakthrough.

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