The DR Congo President will travel to Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to resume talks on GERD.

The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, the current head of the African Union, will tour three African countries [Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia] that are disputing the construction of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Sudanese Foreign Minister Maryam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi announced in statements to the media after meeting Tshisekedi on Monday.

He told Mahdi that the tour will take place soon, the Sudanese news agency (SUNA) reported. Mahdi is on an African tour of some African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tshisekedi’s tour came in light of the resumption of tripartite talks between the Nile countries on the controversial dam, following negotiations to reach a legally binding agreement on the dam’s operating mechanism and the filling of its reservoir ahead of the second phase of filling the reservoir scheduled for mid-July.

He said he was in contact with the UN secretary-general and the US envoy to the Horn of Africa to find a solution to the dam issue, Mahdi said.

During his visit to Uganda, Mahdi met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who pledged to contact Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed as soon as possible in order to bridge the gap between all parties on the dam issue and start a new round of « serious negotiations » on the issue.

According to SUNA, Museveni stressed Uganda’s support for « dialogue leading to mutual gains between the three GERD parties ».

Rounds of negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia on the Ethiopian Dam (GERD) have repeatedly reached an impasse, with Egypt blaming Ethiopia’s intransigence for the failure.

Egypt and Sudan insist that a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam be reached before Ethiopia implements the second phase of filling the dam.

Ethiopia, for its part, says it will complete the filling of the dam in July, with or without an agreement.

On 13 April, Egypt sent a letter to the UN Security Council calling on the international community to engage in the stalled GERD talks and to persuade Ethiopia to refrain from unilateral actions.