French U.N. Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere announced that United Nations Security Council will likely meet next week to discuss a dispute between Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt over a giant dam built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile.
Last month, Arab governments requested a meeting of the 15-member council to address the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and Ethiopia’s plans to fill the dam for the second time this summer without reaching an agreement with Sudan and Egypt.
Ethiopia opposes the Security Council’s involvement and has requested that the matter be sent to the African Union. Ethiopia had already turned down calls from Egypt and Sudan to involve mediators outside the African Union.
De Riviere, the Security Council’s July president, reminded out that the Security Council could only bring the parties together to express their concerns and then encourage them to return to the negotiating table to find a solution.
“I don’t think the council can do much more than that,” he told reporters.
Ethiopia is pinning its economic development and power generation ambitions on the project, while Egypt and Sudan, the dam’s downstream neighbors, are apprehensive and demanding a binding agreement on the dam’s filling and functioning.
Egypt relies on the Nile River for up to 90% of its fresh water and views the dam as a threat to its existence. Sudan is concerned about its own operations of the nile dam and water stations.