❖ The multinational agreement is regulating the use of the Nile River’s waters has officially entered into force, despite strong opposition from Egypt.

❖ The Nile Basin Initiative is a partnership of 10 riparian countries headquartered in Entebbe, Uganda.

❖ The Nile is spanning 11 countries but only five countries signed and ratified the treaty.

❖ Egypt and Sudan have yet to sign the agreement.

❖ They both have long been embroiled in a dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

❖ The GERD, a massive hydropower project on the Blue Nile, is providing electricity to Ethiopia’s 120 million citizens.

❖ Egypt views the dam as an existential threat, as the Nile supplies 97 percent of its water needs.

❖ The Nile Basin Initiative includes Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, while Eritrea participates as an observer