Wed 10 March 2021:
The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the mediation proposal presented by Egypt and Sudan, stressing the country’s adherence to African mediation.
The ministry said that “Ethiopia firmly believes that solving African problems can be done through African solutions and that the African Union and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are fully capable of reaching fair solutions for all sides,” noting that: “holding on to the status quo of colonial-era [agreements] … is unacceptable.”
In a statement published by the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry yesterday, spokesperson Dina Mufti said: “The issue of the Renaissance Dam can be resolved under the auspices of the ongoing negotiations led by the African Union, which do not require another party to interfere as a mediator.”
The statement indicated that “the Nile Basin is a shared water resource, and all downstream countries will benefit from the negotiations, Ethiopia has a genuine and legal right to use its water resources in a fair and equitable manner without causing great harm to the downstream countries.”
The statement added that “the issues raised by the Sudanese side in relation to the dam safety and the exchange of information have been adequately addressed, and they cannot be considered as a ground for complaints at all.”
Sudan presented a proposal with Cairo’s support to develop the negotiation mechanism sponsored by the African Union (AU), through forming an international mediation team led by the Democratic Republic of Congo, in its capacity as the current chair of the AU.
Khartoum and Cairo called on the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States to accept the proposal of mediating the negotiations and launch the talks as soon as possible.
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