Africa-Press – Ethiopia. Addis Ababa April 21/2021 (ENA) The stories circulated by Sudan about the capture of 61 Ethiopian soldiers are baseless and fake, the Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed.
Briefing the media today, Spokesperson Dina Mufti stated that “the fake stories flowing from the Sudanese side about capturing 61 Ethiopian soldiers is not true. The truth is that they have captured about 61 Ethiopians, of which 59 are farmers residing in the border areas, but portray them as captured soldiers which is not the case.”
According to him, only two of them are militias and 59 farmers. As a matter of fact there is no military confrontation right now between the two countries.
“There is no way that this side or the other side captures soldiers from the battlefield. Yet they are trying to portray that there is military confrontation between the two countries,” he elaborated.
Citing the critical need for resolving the confrontation in an amicable manner, Dina stressed that Ethiopia is still committed to peaceful resolution.
With regard to the trilateral GERD negotiations, the spokesperson said Ethiopia has written a letter to the UN Security Council about its commitment to the AU-led process though the other two countries are not cooperative in that regard.
He further noted that the two countries have been undermining the AU-led process by coming up with other alternatives like proposing what they call quartet forum.
“In the letter Ethiopia has expressed its commitment to the AU-led process as the AU-led process will be fruitful and discussions under AU would create a conducive atmosphere for solving the issues related to GERD,” the spokesperson explained.
Ethiopia has suggested a meeting of Bureau of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) to end the impasse over GERD talks, it was learned.
Dina pointed out that the way forward on the GERD negotiations is to request the Chairperson of the African Union, President Felix Tshisekedi to call a meeting of the Bureau of the Assembly of the AU.
It is to be recalled that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, responding to the letter of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok dated 13, April 2021, pointed out that assuming the negotiation process as a failure is not right because some tangible results, including the signing of the Declaration of Principles (DoP) and the establishment of the National Independent Scientific Research Group (NISRG) and its work in relation to stage based filling schedule, have been achieved.
