CAIRO: Egypt presented a new proposal in the Renaissance Dam negotiations that it said did not oppose development projects in Ethiopia, one of the parties involved in the talks reported.
Egypt, which is almost entirely dependent on the River Nile for its fresh water, fears the dam will diminish its water supply, which is already below scarcity level.
Ethiopia hopes that the massive $4.8 billion megaproject on the Blue Nile, which would generate 6,000 megawatts when completed, will allow it to become Africa’s largest power exporter.
The latest round of talks over the years-long dispute, which also involves Sudan, stalled after Ethiopia refused to enter into a binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam.
A statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said that a delegation had reviewed the country’s water situation and people’s sensitivity over the Renaissance Dam issue which, the ministry added, was an existential one.
It also referred to Egyptian efforts to reach a fair and balanced agreement, taking into account the interests of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, enhancing regional cooperation by issuing proposals that were consistent with internationally accepted standards.
The ministry said that the Egyptian proposal achieved the Ethiopian goal of generating electricity and avoiding serious harm to Egyptian and Sudanese interests within the framework of implementing the Declaration of Principles, and the method of dealing with any future projects on the Blue Nile in a manner that ensured their consistency with principles of international law in relation to the use of shared rivers.
The statement said that the Egyptian team had tackled the technical and legal aspects of the dam with monitors and clarified the most important Egyptian concerns regarding the various aspects of the agreement to fill and operate the Renaissance Dam in an attempt to bring the three countries’ views closer.
Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel-Ati said that Ethiopia had several water resources, but suffered when it came to managing and employing them.
He said that Egypt had submitted a technical proposal to generate 85 percent of the electricity that is to be produced by the Renaissance Dam. He added that Egypt was willing to cooperate to support development in Africa and Ethiopia, pointing to the establishment of a fund to support infrastructure linking Egypt with the Nile Basin countries.
Mohamed Nasr Allam, Egypt’s former minister of irrigation and water resources, told Arab News that even with the proposal being presented, reaching an agreement during the current negotiations remained “a weak possibility” and it may be more important to focus on achieving several important goals for the next possible UN Security Council meeting.
He said that these goals included African and international support for Egypt’s attempts to help Ethiopia achieve a fair and equitable use of water that achieved development for its citizens without harming Egyptians, African and international support for the fairness of Egyptian-Sudanese demands, to carry out structural, environmental and social safety studies regarding the implications of the dam and testimony that the Ethiopian demands for a share of the Nile water (not supported by agreements) reduced the historical rights of Egypt and Sudan.
Allam asked whether Egypt’s demands and African attempts to reach a settlement would succeed and “end these urgent issues.”
Some 85 percent of the Nile water that reaches Egypt flows from Ethiopian highlands.
The current talks are being held under the auspices of the African Union.
Egypt says its new proposal supports Ethiopian goal in dam talks
https://arab.news/9zwgn
Egypt says its new proposal supports Ethiopian goal in dam talks
- Years-long dispute over $4.8 billion megaproject
Sudan drone attack on Darfur market kills 10: rescuers
- According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration, more than 50,000 civilians have fled the region since the end of October
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: A drone attack on a busy market in Sudan’s North Darfur state killed 10 people over the weekend, first responders said on Sunday, without saying who was responsible.
The attack comes as fighting intensified elsewhere in the country, leading aid workers to be evacuated on Sunday from Kadugli, a besieged, famine-hit city in the south.
Since April 2023, Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a conflict which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and created the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.
The North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan, said a drone strike hit Al-Harra market in the RSF-controlled town of Malha on Saturday.
The attack killed 10 people, it said.
The council did not identify who carried out the attack, which it said had also sparked “fire in shops and caused extensive material damage.”
There was no immediate comment from either the Sudanese army or the RSF.
The war’s current focal point is now South Kordofan and clashes have escalated in Kadugli, the state capital, where a drone attack last week killed eight people as they attempted to flee the army-controlled city.
A source from a humanitarian organization operating in Kadugli told AFP on Sunday that humanitarian groups had “evacuated all their workers” from the city because of the security conditions.
The evacuation followed the United Nations’ decision to relocate its logistics hub from Kadugli, the source said on condition of anonymity, without specifying where the staff had gone.
- Measles outbreak -
Kadugli and nearby Dilling have been besieged by paramilitary forces since the war erupted.
Last week, the RSF claimed control of the Brno area, a key defensive line on the road between Kadugli and Dilling.
After dislodging the army in October from the western city of El-Fasher — its last stronghold in the Darfur region — the RSF has shifted its focus to resource-rich Kordofan, a strategic crossroads linking army-held northern and eastern territories with RSF-held Darfur in the west.
Like Darfur, Kordofan is home to numerous non-Sudanese Arab ethnic groups. Much of the violence that followed the fall of El-Fasher was reportedly ethnically targeted.
Communications in Kordofan have been cut, and the United Nations declared a famine in Kadugli last month.
According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration, more than 50,000 civilians have fled the region since the end of October.
Residents have been forced to forage for food in nearby forests, according to accounts gathered by AFP.
The conflict has effectively split Sudan in two, with the army controlling the north, east and center while the RSF dominates all five state capitals in Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.
Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Sunday that measles was spreading in three of the four states in Darfur, a vast region covering much of western Sudan.
“A preventable measles outbreak is spreading across Central, South and West Darfur,” the organization said in a statement.
“Since September 2025, MSF teams have treated more than 1,300 cases. Delays in vaccine transport, approvals and coordination, by authorities and key partners are leaving children unprotected.”
