Dam on the Nile: Khartoum requests mediation from the UN and Washington

Sudan officially asked the UN and the United States on Monday to mediate the negotiations between Khartoum and Cairo with Ethiopia regarding the management and filling of the Renaissance Grand Dam reservoir on the Blue Nile. .

Read also: Dam on the Nile: Sisi rejects Ethiopia's "fait accompli" policy

"The Prime Minister addressed a letter to the UN and another to the United States asking them to intervene and play a mediating role to settle the differences over the Renaissance dam

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told AFP Faisal Saleh, spokesperson for Sudanese government chief Abdallah Hamdok.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry for its part indicated in a statement that Abdallah Hamdok had written to the UN, the United States, the European Union and the African Union.

Sudan had proposed a quadripartite mediation last month including these actors.

Africa's largest hydroelectric facility

Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia are unsuccessfully negotiating the terms of management and filling of the reservoir of the Great Renaissance Dam, launched in Ethiopia in 2011 and intended to become the largest hydroelectric facility in Africa.

Egypt, which depends on the Nile for around 97% of its irrigation and drinking water, sees the dam as a threat to its water supply.

Sudan hopes the dam will regulate annual flooding but fears its own dams will be damaged if the second phase of filling is initiated before an agreement is reached.

Addis Ababa, which announced in July that it had reached its goal of filling the dam for the first year, says it wants to continue the process, whether or not an agreement is reached.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, during a visit to Khartoum on March 6, criticized Ethiopia's intention to proceed with the second phase of filling its mega-dam.

Egypt and Sudan "

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had again declared.

The Nile, which flows for some 6,000 kilometers, is an essential source of water and electricity for a dozen countries in East Africa.