UN backs AU's efforts to mediate Nile dam row

Members of the UN Security Council have backed the African Union (AU)’s mediation efforts on the Nile dam row between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

The members on Thursday asked the three countries to resume negotiations, which have yielded little progress since they began a decade ago.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said the negotiations should be held under the leadership of the AU and should recommence with urgency.

“We believe that the African Union is the most appropriate venue to address this dispute, and the US is committed to providing political and technical support,” she told the UN forum.

“A balanced and equitable solution to the filling and operation of the [Nile dam] can be reached with political commitment from all parties,” she added.

The European Union said the AU-led talks needed “to be intensified” adding that it was ready to support the negotiations as observers working with the UN and the US.

Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian representative to the UN, proposed that the three parties should meet while in New York to try to resolve the issues.

Egypt and Sudan had called on the Security Council to help resolve the row after Ethiopia informed them that the second-stage filling of the dam had begun.

They wanted the council to push for a binding agreement over the filling and operation of the dam.

This article was originally published by BBC News. [Photo: AFP]