Ethiopia inaugurated the continent's largest hydroelectric project on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed calling it a "great achievement for all black people" despite years of diplomatic rancour over the dam with downstream neighbour Egypt.
For Ethiopia, the Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD), straddling a tributary of the River Nile, is a national project of historic scale and a rare unifying symbol in a country torn apart by ongoing internal conflicts.
The latest figures from its Italian construction firm Webuild said the dam reached 170 metres (550 feet) high and stretched nearly two kilometres (1.2 miles) across the Blue Nile near the Sudanese border.
The $4-billion megastructure is designed to hold 74 billion cubic metres of water and generate 5,150 megawatts of electricity -- more than double Ethiopia's current capacity, it said.
