The United Nations Security Council tackled a bitter regional dispute on Thursday over a massive dam built by Ethiopia on the main tributary of the Nile River. Thursday’s open session comes after Egypt and Sudan turned to the 15-member body as Ethiopia began this week the second stage of filling GERD. The government in Addis Ababa insists the African Union (AU) should resume handling the talks. On Tuesday, the UN called on the three countries to recommit to talks on the project’s operation and urged them to avoid any unilateral action. “Solutions to this need to be guided by example … by solutions that have been found for others who share waterways, who share rivers, and that is based on the principle of equitable and reasonable utilisation and the obligation not to cause significant harm,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters in New York. The Security Council heard from ministers from the three countries, as well as its member states. It was also briefed by the UN special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, UN environment chief, Inger Andersen, and a diplomat from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which holds the AU presidency.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
