Egypt “will not accept or allow” any party to control the flow of Nile water to downstream countries, an Egyptian source said on Sunday, responding to recent remarks by Ethiopia’s water and energy minister about building additional dams on the river.
The unnamed source said in remarks carried by Egypt’s official news agency MENA.
The remarks came after statements were attributed to Ethiopian Water and Energy Minister Habtamu Itefa about building additional dams on the Nile and controlling water flows to Egypt and Sudan.
According to the Egyptian official who protested Ethiopia’s plan, building additional dams on the Nile waters “represented a continuation of Ethiopia’s unilateral approach and a blatant violation of international law.”
‘Wide-ranging tools’
The Egyptian source added that the remarks reflect “Addis Ababa’s continued delusions that it can impose control over a shared international river and subject it to the will of a single country.”
“The Egyptian state has multiple and wide-ranging tools capable of defending the interests of the Egyptian people in the Nile,” the source said, without elaborating.
Egypt “will not accept or allow any party to control water flows to downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan,” the source said.
Ethiopia officially inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on September 9, 2025. GERD is the largest dam in Africa, designed to generate more than 5,150 megawatts of electricity.
Ethiopia has repeatedly stated that it has a sovereign right to use its share of Nile waters without external influence, although, through its Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Security Council, Ambassador Yoseph Kassaye, Addis Ababa reaffirms its commitment to “abide by the International Law, Principle of Equitable and Reasonable Utilization of the Nile River.”
