(4 minutes read)
· Tensions are mounting between Sudan and Ethiopia as the former deployed significant military reinforcements along its eastern border ostensibly to ward off any possible ambush from the Ethiopian armed forces
· Khartoum has sent, according to reports, significant military reinforcements in areas bordering trouble – hit Ethiopia days after the army said its troops were ambushed there by the Ethiopian forces
· The Sudanese reports suggest that their forces are advancing towards Al-Fashaqa to recapture the stolen lands and take up positions on the international lines
Tensions are mounting between Sudan and Ethiopia as the for merdeployed significant military reinforcements along its eastern border ostensibly to ward off any possible ambush from the Ethiopian armed forces.
Khartoum has sent, according to reports, significant military reinforcements in areas bordering trouble – hit Ethiopia days after the army said its troops were ambushed there by the Ethiopian forces. Reports say that Sudanese soldiers were deployed in the eastern Al-Fashaqa border region. This has been the area of sporadic clashes. The dispute is over a tract of land, which Sudan claims that it owns but being cultivated by the Ethiopian farmers.
The area also borders Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region, where fighting broke out last month, causing over 50,000 Ethiopians fleeing the conflict to cross into Sudan in recent weeks.
The Sudanese reports suggest that their forces are advancing towards Al-Fashaqa to recapture the stolen lands and take up positions on the international lines. They maintained that Ethiopian forces ambushed their forces inside their (Sudan’s) territories. Four Sudanese soldiers were dead in the ambush and more than two dozen soldiers were injured.
Earlier, the UN has called on both countries to stop the attacks and come to the negotiating table to settle things amicably. However, Addis Ababa is underplaying the incident and is maintaining that the adverse developments would not affect the relationship with Sudan. Admittedly, the recent developments- first between Ethiopian Federal Forces and the Trigyan forces and now between Ethiopian and Sudanese forces – have put Eastern Africa on alert.
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, while on a visit to Addis Ababa last week, spoke to his Ethiopian counterpart Abiy Ahmed and stressed the need for demarcating boundaries of both countries.
