Sudan formally requests four-party mediation in GERD row

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok sent letters to the United Nations, African Union, European Union and the United States, foreign ministry says.

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has written to the United Nations, African Union (AU), European Union and the United States to formally request their mediation in a bitter regional dispute over the filling of a giant dam built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile River. A statement released by the Sudanese foreign ministry on Monday said Hamdok had expressed concern over Ethiopia’s stated intention of adding more water to the reservoir behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) for a second year in letters sent on Saturday. Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt have been locked for almost 10 years in inconclusive talks over the filling and operation of the hydropower dam, which broke ground in 2011. Both Egypt and Sudan lie downstream from the GERD, which Addis Ababa says is crucial to its economic development.