Egypt ups pressure for Ethiopia dam deal
KHALID ABDELAZIZ and AIDAN LEWIS EGYPTIAN President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called for a binding deal by the summer on the operation of a giant Ethiopian hydropower dam, as he made his first visit to neighbouring Sudan since the 2019 overthrow of Omar al-Bashir. Egypt also signalled support for Sudan in a dispute with Ethiopia over an area on the border between the two countries where there have recently been armed skirmishes. Both Egypt and Sudan lie downstream from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Addis Ababa says is crucial to its economic development. Ethiopia, which says it has…