Sudan’s Hamdok to visit Cairo, Addis Ababa for talks on Blue Nile dam

March 30, 2020 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok would visit Egypt and Ethiopia in the upcoming days to urge the resumption of negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), his office said on Monday.

Hamdok’s office announced a call with the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday to discuss the stalled talks despite a series of meetings Washington hosted to break the deadlock.

“Hamdok informed (Mnuchin) of his intention to visit Cairo and Addis Ababa in the near future to recommend the two parties to resume negotiations on the Renaissance Dam and complete the remaining outstanding issues,” reads a statement released after the telephone call.

According to Hamdok’s office, the prime minister and the U.S. Treasury Secretary agreed that the negotiation process in Washington has achieved great progress, which makes logical the resumption of this process.

“The two sides also agreed that the issue of the Renaissance Dam is very urgent and should continue to be negotiated once the world overcomes the pandemic of Coronavirus,” stressed the statement.

last February, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan had been expected to sign a final agreement in Washington on the filling of the GERD, but Ethiopia skipped the meeting of 27-28 over internal consultations.

Following consultations with the Egyptian and Sudanese foreign ministers, Mnuchin issued a statement stressing that final testing and filling of the GERD should not take place without an agreement.

Reacting to this statement, Addis Ababa said disappointed at the U.S. statement following the talks. However, Ethiopia remains “committed to continuing its engagement” with Egypt and Sudan to finalize an agreement on the initial filling and annual operation of the dam, a statement issued by the Ethiopian government.

Recently the Egyptian president approached the head of the Sovereign Council of Sudan requesting Khartoum intervention to convince Ethiopian to ink Washington agreement.

However, the transitional authority in Khartoum discussed the Egyptian request and dispatched Mohamed Hamdan Daglo ‘Hemetti’ leading member of the Sovereign Council to Cairo to inform President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that only Hamdok can mediate stressing that Sudan’s foreign policy is only led by government.

Following a meeting with al-Sisi on 15 March, Hemetti nonetheless told reporters that his country would mediate between Ethiopia and Egypt to end the dispute over the GERD.

(ST)