Egypt/Ethiopia/Sudan: Why Ethiopia’s $5 Billion Dam Has Riled Its Neighbors

Sep 15, 2023 | Fasika Tadesse and Michael Cohen, Bloomberg
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Ethiopia has been at loggerheads with downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan for years over a $5 billion mega-dam it’s built on the Nile River’s biggest tributary. A fourth phase of filling a 74 billion cubic-meter (2.6 trillion cubic-foot) reservoir behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was completed in September, a process Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said was undertaken despite “external pressure.” Tensions are likely to persist despite the project being largely a fait accompli, because of the control Ethiopia now wields over flows along a key regional waterway.