CAIRO, Dec. 21 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt expressed hope Monday that the situation in Ethiopia "stabilises", describing the ongoing unrest as an "internal Ethiopian affair."

The Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid added that Ethiopia is a large, important African country and its stability is in Egypt's interest.

According to Reuters, protests broke out in Ethiopia in response to a government plan to allocate farmland near Ethiopia's capital for new investment. The plan caused "some of the worst civil unrest for a decade".

In a report published on 18 December, Human Rights Watch cited activists as saying that Ethiopian security forces killed at least 75 protestors and wounded many others.

Egypt has been engaging with Ethiopia and Sudan in talks over the past two years over the establishment of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The construction of the dam triggered the fear of possible shortage of water in downstream countries which include Egypt.

For decades, Egypt has annually been receiving 55 billion cubic meters of the Nile River’s water, the largest share, as per agreements in the past century. 

Earlier in December, water and foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan held talks in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. The six-way talks, as they are dubbed in Egyptian media, ended without reaching an agreement.

The three states have held up to 10 rounds of talks over the past two years and this is not the first round that ends in impasse. Talks will resume on 27 - 28 December, and will also involve the six ministers of water and foreign affairs.

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan signed a preliminary agreement on the Ethiopian dam on March 23, during a meeting of the trio's top leadership in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said at the time of the signing that his country will not accept that any harm be caused to the Nile river downstream countries, "specifically, the Egyptian people."