By Khalid Abdelaziz and Aidan Lewis
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on Saturday for a binding agreement until the summer for the operation of a gigantic hydroelectric dam in Ethiopia, on his first visit to neighboring Sudan since the fall of Omar al -Bashir in 2019.
Egypt has also signaled support for Sudan in a dispute with Ethiopia over an area on the border between the two countries where armed skirmishes have recently occurred.
Both Egypt and Sudan are downstream from the Great Dam of the Ethiopian Renaissance (GERD), which Addis Ababa says is crucial to their economic development.
Ethiopia, which claims to have every right to use the waters of the Nile long exploited by Egypt, started filling the reservoir behind the dam last summer after Egypt and Sudan failed to reach a legal agreement on how the dam will be operated.
Khartoum fears that the dam, which sits on the Blue Nile near the border with Sudan, may increase the risk of flooding and affect the safe operation of its own Nile dams, while Egypt, with water scarcity, fears that its supplies from the Nile can be reached.
Years of diplomatic negotiations over the project have been stalled repeatedly. The positions of Egypt and Sudan have come closer as Cairo has been involved in a wave of diplomacy on the subject over the past two years.
This week, Egypt’s chief of staff signed a military cooperation agreement with his Sudanese counterpart during a visit to Sudan.
“We affirm the need to resume serious and effective negotiations with the aim of reaching, as soon as possible and before the next flood season, a fair, balanced and legally binding agreement,” said Sisi after meeting with Sudanese leaders.
Sudan recently proposed that the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and the African Union should actively mediate the dispute, rather than simply watching the talks, a suggestion that Egypt supports.
Ethiopia this week indicated its opposition to adding mediators to a process led by the African Union.
The phone call from Sisi came a day after Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry appealed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a return to “serious” talks on the dam, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. from Egypt.
In a meeting with the head of Sudan’s governing council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sisi also discussed “recent Sudanese movements to extend the state’s sovereignty along its eastern borders with Ethiopia, which come in the context of Sudan’s respect for international agreements” , a declaration from Egypt. presidency said.
Sudan and Ethiopia blame each other for the disturbances in the border area of Al-Fashqa, which has long been populated by Ethiopian farmers. Ethiopia rejected Sudan’s claims to assert its rights to control the area under a 1903 border agreement.
Since Bashir was overthrown after mass protests, a civil-military council has held power in Sudan during a political transition that is expected to last until the end of 2023.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum, Aidan Lewis and Mohamed Waly in Cairo and Dawit Endeshaw in Addis Ababa; edition by Helen Popper and Catherine Evans)