CAIRO — The last round of talks held in Washington in late February on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) faltered to yield a comprehensive agreement on the filling and operation of the dam after Ethiopia withdrew from the negotiations. 

A State Department readout of a call between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on April 13 made no reference to the dam dispute. This comes at a time when the Trump administration, along with the World Bank, has been arbitrating discussions among Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Addis Ababa has since turned to the Nile Basin countries to shore up support in a bid to confront Egypt's international moves to block Ethiopia’s unilateral decision to start filling the dam without any agreement with Egypt and Sudan — thus imposing a policy fait accompli.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced April 1 the start of the filling of the dam by the next rain season that starts in June. Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s President Sahle-Work Zewde paid visits to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, which are member states in the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), a regional organization tasked with managing cooperation between the Nile Basin countries.