Ethiopia bans flights over dam, cites security reasons

Ethiopia has banned all flights over an enormous dam it is constructing on the Blue Nile River.

While citing security reasons, the head of its civil aviation authority quoted the country’s president as saying that the project would start generating power in the coming 12 months.

Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt have been locked in a bitter dispute over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which remains unresolved although the reservoir behind the dam began filling in July.

“All flights have been banned to secure the dam,” the director-general of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, Wesenyeleh Hunegnaw, said.

In a speech to Parliament later on Monday, Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde said, “This year will be a year where the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will start generating power with the two turbines.”

She also said work was under way to enable a second filling of the giant hydropower dam within the next 12 months.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the United Nations last month that the country has “no intention” of harming Sudan and Egypt with the dam, days after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi reiterated his concerns over the project.

Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan failed to strike a deal on the operation of the dam before Addis Ababa began filling the reservoir behind it in July.

The dam is at the centre of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter.