Sudan announces delay to latest negotiations over Ethiopia’s Nile dam project

Sudan said talks over Ethiopia’s Nile dam project would be postponed for a week.

Discussions between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan were suspended last week after Addis Ababa insisted on linking talks to renegotiating a deal on sharing the waters of the Blue Nile.

Ethiopia broke ground on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in 2011, causing a dispute between the three countries over the operation of the dam and the filling of the reservoir.

On Monday, Sudan’s Water and Irrigation Ministry said Khartoum proposed postponing negotiations for a week during a meeting of officials from the three countries to allow “internal consultations” to take place.

Egypt and Sudan view the dam as a threat to vital water supplies, while Ethiopia considers the project to be crucial to the development of the country.

South Africa, which holds the presidency of the African Union and is mediating negotiations, urged the countries to continue to negotiate.

“It is important that the parties should display magnanimity and understanding of each other’s interests so as to move the process forward,” South African International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor said last week.

The warning from South Africa was issued after a meeting of tripartite technical and legal committees that are seeking an agreement on how the dam should be operated.

Sudan’s Water and Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas accused Ethiopia of shifting its position as negotiations continue to stall.

He said Ethiopia wanted the deal on the dam be linked to the wider question of sharing the waters of the Blue Nile.

“This new Ethiopian position threatens the negotiations under the aegis of the African Union and Sudan will not participate in negotiations that include the subject of sharing Blue Nile waters,” Mr Abbas said.

Egypt and Sudan believe they have a “historic right” to the river that they say is

Egypt and Sudan believe they have a right to the Nile’s waters because of agreements reached in 1929 and 1959

guaranteed by agreements reached in 1929 and 1959.

Ethiopia cites a treaty signed in 2010 by six riverside countries, and boycotted by Egypt and Sudan, that Addis Ababa said authorised it to construct the dam on the river.

Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said Ethiopia’s draft proposal on how the dam would operate lacked substance.

The ministry said the plan also breached guidelines set at an African Union meeting on July 21. “Egypt and Sudan demanded meetings be suspended for internal consultations,” the ministry said.