ADDIS ABABA – President Salva Kiir says South Sudan will sign an agreement with Ethiopia in 2022 to import hydro electricity from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
The mega dam – Africa’s biggest – was officially inaugurated on Tuesday to provide energy to millions of Ethiopians. But the dam has deepened a rift with downstream Egypt which views it as an ‘existential threat’.
President Kiir was at the ceremony launching the dam located at Benishangul-Gumuz region close to the Sudanese border. He told mostly African leaders that the dam is a symbol of “unity, sacrifice and determination.”
“I am pleased to announce that South Sudan is looking forward to signing an agreement to receive power from the dam,” Kiir said.
In 2022, South Sudan and Ethiopia agreed to the importation of at least 100 Megawatts of electricity to South Sudan over three years, which already elapsed.
The agreement was signed when a South Sudanese delegation, led by Energy and Dam Minister, Peter Marcello, paid a working visit to Addis Ababa to finalize the MoU.
During the signing ceremony, the South Sudan minister said the agreement would enable his country expedite the erection of transmission infrastructure to link the power grids of the two countries.
Regional leaders, including Kenya’s President William Ruto and Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, attended the festivities in person, which kicked off the night before with lantern displays and drones writing slogans such as “geopolitical rise” and “a leap into the future”.