Sudan has threatened to sue the Italian company implementing the Nile dam and the Ethiopian government if the second filling of the dam is conducted without a legal deal.

Sudanese Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Yasir Abbas issued the threat in a tweet.

“In case the second filling is conducted without reaching a legal deal, Sudan has legal teams, supported with international law offices, that will file lawsuits against the Italian implementing company and the Ethiopian government,” Abbas twitted.

“The lawsuit is based on the fact that the environmental and social impacts and risks of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) have not been studied,” he added.

The minister noted that failure to reach a deal would pave the way for filing a lawsuit to the UN Security Council as the GERD constitutes a real danger to the regional peace and security.

According to Abbas, reaching an agreement does not reduce the sovereignty or rights of Ethiopia, but provides it with full rights and protects Sudan’s interests.

Sudan proposed a mediation quartet of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and the African Union regarding the GERD issue.

Ethiopia, however, has announced its rejection of the formula.

In February, Ethiopia said it would carry on with the second-phase 13.5-billion-cubic-meter filling of the GERD in June.

The volume of the first-phase filling last year was 4.9 billion cubic meters.

Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia have been in talks for years over the technical and legal issues related to the filling and operation of the GERD.

Ethiopia, which started building the dam in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity from the dam project, while Egypt and Sudan, downstream Nile Basin countries that rely on the river for its freshwater, are concerned that the dam might affect their share of the water resources. (Xinhua/NAN)