Sudan briefs Security Council on Nile Dam crisis

By Buhram Abdel-Men'em

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AA) - Sudan's foreign minister on Tuesday said she briefed the UN Security Council on the failure of the Kinshasa talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project.

In a statement, Mariam al-Mahdi said: "The briefing letter to the Security Council came after the Ethiopian intransigence that failed the Kinshasa talks sponsored by the African Union, and the insistence of the Ethiopian officials to harm Sudan by going to the second filling [of the dam] without a legal agreement."

She added the unilateral second filling of the dam will harm regional peace and security.

Al-Mahdi urged the Security Council to support Sudan's effort for a quartet mediation comprising the UN, EU, US and African Union regarding Ethiopia's dam.

On April 6, talks in the Congolese capital Kinshasa collapsed with Cairo and Khartoum accusing Addis Ababa of insisting to carry out the second filling of the dam even without reaching a legally binding agreement.

Last month, Ethiopia announced its decision to reject a Sudanese proposal for a quartet mediation.

While Ethiopia says the GERD is key to electricity generation and economic development, Egypt fears that the dam project will imperil its water share from the Nile, the country's only source of freshwater. Sudan, meanwhile, is worried that filling the GERD without an agreement with downstream countries will affect the safety of its own dams.

Years of negotiations between the three countries have failed to make a breakthrough for an agreement on filling and operation the GERD.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara