This is an update about disturbing developments regarding the Merowe Dam Project in Northern Sudan. This dam - the largest hydropower project under construction in Africa - is currently being built by Chinese and Western companies. About 50,000 people are supposed to be displaced to barren places in the Nubian desert for the project. In recent days, tensions around the dam project have escalated. On November 29, violence erupted on Sherri Island, a Nile island that will be submerged by the Merowe reservoir. Massive protests broke out when security forces tried to arrest representatives of the dam-affected communities on this island. In the ensuing scuffles, the office of the dam authority was set afire, and the government officials had to flee the island. According to unconfirmed reports, the government has dispatched three battalions to the area to quash the unrest.