Kinshasa welcomes, from this Saturday, April 3 through Monday, a new round of negotiations around the construction site for the Renaissance dam. The Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese foreign ministers will be present. Ethiopia has been building Africa’s largest dam since 2011 on the Nile. Sudan and Egypt in particular fear an impact on their vital water reserves. Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi took over the presidency of the African Union (AU) in February and will in turn try to find a way out of the crisis.
as reported from Nairobi, Sebastien nemeth
Since taking office as head of the AU, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, has shown some interest in this very sensitive issue. The Congolese president visited Egypt in early February, then Ethiopia. He welcomed the Ethiopian president and several Sudanese ministers in Kinshasa. But its task promises to be sensitive.
Burning file
The last time AU held talks was in January. They quickly failed, where the participants did not even agree on who could participate in the dialogue. The question is all the hotter because the rhetoric is extremely tense between the various actors while the dam site, 79% completed, is in a crucial phase, filling the container, the first phase of which has been completed.
“No one can take a drop of water from Egypt”
Earlier this week, Ethiopia’s prime minister said his country did not want to harm its neighbors, but it did not want to stay in the dark either. Abiy Ahmed had therefore announced the second phase of the filling for July and had specified that he did not want to wait for the end of the negotiations, otherwise the rainy season would pass and Ethiopia would lose one billion dollars a year.
In the process, the Egyptian head of state warned that if the tank was filled without an agreement, there would be instability “that no one can imagine. No one can take a drop of water from Egypt, said General al-Sisi.
To read also: The pond of the Renaissance: the discussions resume in a very tense context
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