Sudan, Ethiopia ‘in agreement’ on dam, says Burhan

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s leader Abdel Fattah Al Burhan said on Thursday that Khartoum and Addis Ababa are “aligned and in agreement” on a controversial Ethiopian dam on the Blue Nile.

Burhan’s remarks came during a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who is on a one-day visit to Khartoum, his first since Burhan led a 2021 military coup.

“Burhan emphasised that Sudan and Ethiopia are aligned and in agreement on all issues regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD),” according to a statement by the sovereign council, which he chairs.

Thursday’s talks also touched upon border issues between Sudan and Ethiopia, another source of tensions between the two countries in recent years.

Al Fashaqa, a fertile border region long cultivated by Ethiopian farmers but claimed by Sudan, has seen sporadic deadly clashes between the two sides in recent years.

Burhan said “documents, technical mechanisms and dialogue are the main reference in the issue,” the sovereign council said.

Sudan’s military ruler welcomed a November peace deal between Abiy’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that ended two years of conflict in which as many as 500,000 people were killed, according to US officials.

The fighting drove tens of thousands of people to seek refuge in Sudan.

During his visit, Abiy also met with representatives of Sudan’s Forces for Freedom and Change, a civilian bloc which was ousted from power in Burhan’s 2021 coup, the group said in a statement.

On his Twiter account, Abiy said he was “pleased” to be in Sudan and expressed appreciation of Burhan’s “warm welcome.”

“Ethiopia continues to stand in solidarity with Sudan in their current self-led political process,” he said.

He affirmed Ethiopia’s “non-interventionist principle” and urged “home-grown solutions” in Sudan.