Ethiopia launches massive hydropower dam against bitter Egyptian opposition

NAIROBI (Reuters) -Ethiopia officially inaugurates Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam on Tuesday, a project that will provide energy to millions of Ethiopians while deepening a rift with downstream Egypt that has unsettled the region.

Ethiopia, the continent’s second most populous nation with a population of 120 million, sees the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on a tributary of the River Nile as central to its ambitions for economic development.

Begun in 2011, the dam’s…