Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his Sudanese counterpart Hamdok held discussion amid reports of conflicts over the border agricultural areas.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Office on Sunday said leaders of the two neighboring states discussed ways to bolster their long standing relations for common economic and social development.
Recalling the support of PM Abiy in particular and the Government of Ethiopia in general during Sudan’s time of need, PM Hamdok reiterated his country’s solidarity with Ethiopia in the law enforcement operations it has been undertaking in Tigray, the office said in a statement.
The discussions between the two leaders concluded with an understanding on several issues of mutual interest, according to office of the Prime Minister.
APA learned that tension is getting higher and higher at the border of the two east African nations over ownership rights of agricultural areas, which currently are held by Ethiopian farmers.
“The Sudanese soldiers have evicted us from our agricultural lands where we have been plowing through generations,” victims told APA on condition anonymity.
Reports said, however, the Sudanese army deployed its troops in the border agricultural areas of Gadaref which had been controlled for more than two decades by Ethiopian militias.
“The Sudanese army forces continued to advance towards the occupied border areas in Al-Fashaqa, as it retook the Kurdia area after expelling the Ethiopian farmers,” military sources told the Sudan Tribune reporter in Gadaref.
The Sixth Infantry forces regained the Jebel Tayara area in the eastern Qallabat locality, east of Sondos area, the Sudanese army official further said.
Last May, the Ethiopian army and militiamen were in Jebel Tayara area and bombed the Sudanese army in the Anfal area.
At the time, the Sudanese army said they fought against Ethiopian troops and not militiamen.
MG/abj/APA