Sudan backs UAE mediation in border, dam disputes with Ethiopia

KHARTOUM - Sudan's cabinet has backed an initiative for the United Arab Emirates to mediate in a dispute over Sudan's border with Ethiopia, and over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the Sudanese information minister said on Tuesday.

Tensions surrounding the control of farmland in al-Fashqa, on the border, have escalated in recent months, while talks over the operation of the GERD, which will affect water volume downstream on the Nile in Sudan and Egypt, are deadlocked.

Sudan's transitional cabinet backed the proposal for Emirati mediation after it had been studied at ministry level, Information Minister Hamza Baloul said.

Sudan had previously proposed four-party mediation over the dam involving the African Union, the European Union, the United States and the United Nations.

That suggestion had been backed by Egypt, the other party to the stalled talks, but not by Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is expected to add water to the reservoir behind the giant hydropower dam for a second year this summer.