Quoting the head of Ethiopia's civil aviation authority, the Reuters news agency has confirmed that the country has banned aircraft from flying over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) in the north of the country for security reasons.

We had published a post earlier on this story based on details from Ethiopia's Reporter newspaper.

"All flights have been banned to secure the dam," Wesenyeleh Hunegnaw told Reuters without giving any more information.

The Gerd dams the Blue Nile, the Nile's main tributary. Egypt, which is downstream, has called it "a threat of potentially existential proportions".
The country almost totally relies on the river for its water supply.

There have been increased tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia over the dam, but the two countries, along with Sudan, are part of an African Union process to try and resolve the differences.