Ethiopia: The Danger of Renewed U.S. Interest in the GERD

In a region already crowded with external actors, the U.S. risks escalating tensions.

On Friday, President Trump sought to re-energize U.S. efforts to mediate the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia regarding the Nile waters with a letter to Egyptian President al-Sisi. Longstanding disagreements over water allocation, which had been governed by a 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan that simply excluded Ethiopia and other riparian states, have come sharply into focus since Ethiopia constructed…