Sudan Says It’s Fighting a Border War With Ethiopian Forces

The Sudanese army said on Tuesday that it was fighting a border war with Ethiopia, specifying it was against federal forces and not Ethiopian militia, Arab News reported.

Large agricultural areas have been recaptured at the border with Ethiopia, the army said, claiming that border signs were uprooted.

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said that it would try to resolve the border crisis with Sudan peacefully. 

Earlier this week the Sudanese information minister said that the Sudan had taken control of most of the land it accused Ethiopians of encroaching upon near the border between the two countries.

Tensions in the border region have flared since the outbreak of conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region in early November and the arrival of more than 50,000 mainly Tigrayan refugees in eastern Sudan.

Disputes have been concentrated on agricultural land in al-Fashqa, which falls within Sudan’s international boundaries but has long been settled by Ethiopian farmers.

There have been armed clashes between Sudanese and Ethiopian forces in recent weeks, with both sides accusing the other of instigating the violence. The two countries held talks this week in Khartoum over the issue.