Sudan to mediate GERD dispute: Sudan will step in and act as the mediator for an agreement between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the Associated Press reported the deputy head of the country’s governing council as saying yesterday. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said the Sudanese government will work to “reach an agreement” in the long running dispute following two days’ of talks with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in Cairo. Tensions have risen between the two states in past weeks after Ethiopia walked out of US-backed talks at the end of February, saying that it needed more time to consider the draft agreement and later accusing the US of being biased in favor of Cairo.