Ethiopia says US was given “inaccurate” information on GERD

Ethiopia says US President Donald Trump was provided with “inaccurate and misleading” information about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the Associated Press reports. This follows a war of words that has emerged between Egypt and Ethiopia after the latter did not attend the last round of US and World Bank-mediated talks in Washington, leaving the dispute over the filling of the dam unresolved. Trump spoke with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi after the talks and said that he hoped an agreement could be finalized soon, which may, the report notes, have been what prompted Ethiopian Irrigation Minister Sileshi Bekele to say on a local talk show that “there was an understanding that Ethiopia’s dam will block all the water flowing to other countries. President Trump said this could lead to a war … But we have told him the facts.”