Ethiopia said Tuesday that its first-year target has been reached for filling a mega-dam on the Blue Nile River that has stoked tensions with downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan. But it risked drawing the ire of both Cairo and Khartoum, which had insisted that a trilateral agreement on the dam's operations be reached before Addis Ababa began impounding water in the dam's reservoir. Egypt and Sudan view the dam as a threat to vital water supplies, while Ethiopia considers it essential for its electrification and development. Last week Ethiopian officials acknowledged that water was gathering in the dam's reservoir, though officials said this was a "natural" part of the construction process. The statement from Abiy's office Tuesday did not specify whether the first-year target had been hit through a "natural" process or through other steps to expedite filling.

Source: Standard Digital July 22, 2020 08:26 UTC