Ethiopia has completed the third filling of its USD 4.2 bn Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the office of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Friday. Ahmed a day earlier announced that the country had begun generating electricity from the second of the dam’s 13 turbines, which has a generational capacity of 375 MW, bringing the dam’s current capacity to 750 MW. Its first turbine came online in February. Egypt and Sudan did not appear to have publicly responded to the news as of our dispatch time this morning.

Remember: Talks between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan over filling and operating the dam have been at a standstill for a year, when Ethiopia unilaterally embarked on the second filling of the dam’s reservoir and Egypt and Sudan pulled out of the African Union-led negotiations. The UAE recently tried to inject new momentum into the diplomatic process and called on the three countries to return to talks with the AU. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said a few days later that Egypt would continue pursuing a diplomatic approach to the dispute.

The news is getting play in the foreign press: Reuters | AFP | Bloomberg | Africanews.