The African Union has been holding a virtual meeting on Tuesday to deliberate on the progress to resolve a dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over a controversial dam being built on the River Nile.
The virtual meeting of the AU Bureau of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government was chaired by AU Chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa, also serving as the President of South Africa.
The meeting tppk place within the context of the AU’s efforts to strengthen the negotiations and to infuse new momentum towards the resolution of all the outstanding legal and technical matters, including the issue of the future development on the Blue Nile upstream as well as the future dispute resolution mechanism, the South African presidency said.
Ethiopia has been undertaking the construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam in a bid to address the growing power demand and reinforce its fight against poverty.
Reports indicate that 60 percent out of the total population of Ethiopia has no access to electricity and women in rural areas go far to collect firewood as part of survival.
Ethiopia hopes its hydroelectric dam will enable it to alleviate complicated socio economic development challenges.
Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt have held months of negotiations on GERD with little success.
MG/as/APA