From Nile Basin Initiatives (NBI) to External mediator: Challenges of the Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam Negotiations

Abstract

The riparian countries, especially Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, have had intricated relations since the building of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). There have been many mediations but none of Egypt's "historical", Sudan's "development" and Ethiopia's "natural" rights have ever been settled satisfactorily. Egypt and Sudan continue to state their dissatisfaction with the status quo as they rejected Ethiopia's proposal. The mediator also departed, peripheral actors apart from the Nile basin and the African Union. The US efforts to mediate in all three countries have also failed. Thus, from the Nile riparian states to external mediation, the Renaissance dam negotiations were not