Ethiopia seeks to reassure Egypt over Nile waters

Ethiopia has reassured Egypt that a new pact it signed with four other countries on the sharing of water from the River Nile will not harm Egypt.

Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda in May signed the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework meant to replace a 1959 accord between Egypt and Sudan that gives them control of more than 90 percent of the water flow.

“No one would be left disadvantageous as all riparian countries want to use resources in a reasonable manner… for development,” the state-run Ethiopan News Agency quoted Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin as saying.

“This is a work in progress and we are hoping that we would continue negotiations to bridge the gap that exists in different capitals… ,” he said after talks on Wednesday with his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in Addis Ababa.

Egypt and Sudan are opposed to the new treaty which they believe would reduce their share of the Nile water.