CAIRO — Egypt is working to build the Stiegler’s Gorge dam on the Rufiji River in Tanzania, at a time when the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) crisis between Ethiopia and two downstream countries — Egypt and Sudan — reached a turning point. Secretary-General of the League of the Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a TV interview June 20 that the next step for Egypt and Sudan is to file a complaint against Ethiopia before the UN Security Council through Tunisia, the state representing the Arab countries in the council.

On June 12, Tanzanian Minister of Investment Geoffrey Mwambe said in a press statement on the sidelines of the forum for the heads of African investment authorities in Sharm el-Sheikh that Egyptian companies have started implementing the Stiegler’s Gorge dam project on the Rufiji River.

Mwambe noted that Egypt is one of Tanzania’s top 10 economic partners as both countries have agreed on several major projects and started implementing some, such as the Stiegler’s Gorge dam project and the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station attached to it.

A few days prior to these statements, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called his Tanzanian counterpart, Samia Suhulu Hassan. According to a June 9 Egyptian presidency press statement, Hassan spoke about the existence of broad prospects for developing relations between Egypt and Tanzania, praising the Egyptian support for Tanzanian development efforts, especially through the construction of the Stiegler’s Gorge dam and the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station, which are the largest national projects in Tanzania.