CAIRO — After the technical and legal discussions sponsored by the African Union ended July 13 without a consensus being reached between Cairo, Addis Ababa and Khartoum over the rules for filling and operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Ethiopia published statements and pictures of the dam site showing that it has started filling the dam’s reservoir despite ongoing disagreements with Egypt and Sudan.
On July 15, Ethiopian state television reported that the process of filling the mega dam has begun, quoting Minister of Water and Energy Seleshi Bekele It also published an Amharic-language video report claiming that the dam's reservoir had begun storing water.