CAIRO – 5 May 2021: Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said he thinks President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was keen to express the seriousness of the Ethiopian dam issue to the world, commenting on Sisi’s earlier remarks that “all options are open” regarding the dam. Sisi urged Ethiopia in April to cooperate with Egypt on the water file, as collapse of rounds of negotiations to reach a legally-binding agreement on Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been blamed on Ethiopia’s intransigence. This comes amid Ethiopia’s insistence to complete the dam filling in July despite objections by Egypt and Sudan about filling the dam before an agreement on the filling and operation of the dam is reached. “The dam brings a lot of benefits to the three countries … But for these benefits to materialize, we have to reach a binding agreement,” Hamdok said. This is why we are asking for a binding agreement within the international law.”
