Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) meeting with Ethiopia Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. Cairo: Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said Thursday at talks in Cairo they were opposed to any “conflict” over the sharing of Nile waters. The Nile should serve as “a source of cohesion... and development, not of conflict” with Ethiopia, which is building a controversial dam that has raised Egyptian concerns over water supplies, he said. Egypt relies almost totally on the Nile for irrigation and drinking water, and says it has “historic rights” to the river, guaranteed by treaties from 1929 and 1959. The Blue and the White Nile tributaries converge in Sudan’s capital Khartoum and from there run north through Egypt to the Mediterranean.

Source: Ethiopian News January 18, 2018 13:52 UTC