CAIRO — The latest round of negotiations brokered by the African Union on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia has ended with another failure. The dispute resurfaced over the role of experts and observers representing the AU and the World Bank and their role in facilitating the dialogue and resolving the dispute over technical and legal issues.

The ministers of foreign affairs and water for Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia met Jan. 10 during the last round of negotiations led by South Africa, the current AU chair, in a bid to reach a binding legal agreement on the rules for filling and operating the dam, based on the recommendations of the AU Commission that convened several times in 2020.

The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained the reason behind the failure of the latest meeting in a Jan. 10 statement on Facebook. “Sudan insists on mandating experts appointed by the AU Commission to propose solutions to the controversial issues and to elaborate the GERD agreement. Egypt and Ethiopia have reservations about this proposal, due to the right of the three countries to formulate the texts and provisions of the agreement for the filling and operation of the dam. The AU experts are not specialists in the technical and engineering fields related to the management of water resources and the operation of dams.”

The ministry did not name any measures that Egypt will take, saying only that the South African minister of foreign affairs, who spearheaded the meeting on behalf of the AU, will submit a report to the president of South Africa and look into the what can be done.