Sudan will not allow Ethiopia to impose its policy regarding renaissance dam: Spox

CAIRO - 16 January 2020: Spokesman for the Sovereignty Council of Sudan Mohamed Suleiman has said that Sudan will not allow Ethiopia to impose its policy regarding the renaissance dam.

Suleiman's remarks came at a press conference on Friday evening, he added that Ethiopia is implementing its policy of filling the dam without any consultation and before reaching an agreement in this regard. He added that Sudan will not accept this Ethiopian stance.

In 2015, the three countries signed the Declaration of Principles, per which the downstream countries should not be negatively affected by the construction of the dam.

In October 2019, Egypt blamed Addis Ababa for hindering a final agreement concerning a technical problem, calling for activating Article No. 10 of the Declaration of Principles, which stipulates that if the three countries could not find a solution to these disputes, they have to ask for mediation.

Washington had brokered tripartite negotiations among the three countries, in the presence of the President of the World Bank (WB) starting from November 6, 2019 until February 27 and 28, 2020.

During these rounds of talks, tangible outcomes were agreed on among the three parties concerning the rules and mechanism of operating the dam and the filling process of the reservoir during the drought and prolonged drought; however, an agreement was not sealed.