Ethiopia and Sudan have agreed to resolve border dispute once and for all, the spokesperson of the Ethiopian Foreign Affairs ministry has said.
Ambassador Dina Mufti’s suggestion comes amid reports that Sudan has deployed troops along the Ethio-Sudanse border where there was a clash with Ethiopian militia men last week.
“Despite efforts by our common enemies to escalate the situation, the two countries have vowed to resolve the issues peacefully once and for all”, Dina said on Tuesday in an interview with local media.
Commander in Chief of the Sudanese Army and Chairman of the Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan reportedly announced that troop deployment “to protect its territorial integrity and citizens as well as preserve the sovereignty of the homeland.”
The Sudanese leader Abdullah Hamdok and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met on the sidelines of Sunday’s IGAD Extraordinary Summit of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Djibouti and assigned a committee to demarcate their common border.
There was an attack from Sudan’s side of border into Ethiopia which Ambassador Dina said had no links to the Sudanese government troops.
Late last week, Dina confirmed to the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) about clashes reportedly between Sudanese troops and an Ethiopian militia group.
He said “the Sudanese force made “major incursion into Ethiopian territory that led to fighting in which an undisclosed number of soldiers and militiamen were killed”.
According to the spokesperson, the Sudanese military crossed the border into Ethiopia’s territory, seized lands and attacked local farmers in the area.
A counterattack by the local militiamen regained control of the area, Dina said but did not disclose the number of causalities.
“The government is closely following the incident with the local militia on the Ethio-Sudan border,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had said on his official Twitter account.
The premier’s remark came after Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said that “Ethiopian forces and militias” attacked a military patrol inside Sudan.
“Such incidents will not break the bond between our two countries as we always use dialogue to resolve issues,” Abiy said in his tweet, referring to the clashes.
MG/as/APA