Africa-Press Ethiopia<\/p>\n
– Sudan has taken control of most of the land it accuses Ethiopians of encroaching upon near the border between the two countries, the Sudanese information minister said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Tensions in the border region have flared since the outbreak of conflict in Ethiopia\u2019s northern Tigray region in early November and the arrival of more than 50,000 mainly Tigrayan refugees in eastern Sudan.<\/p>\n
Disputes have been concentrated on agricultural land in al-Fashqa, which falls within Sudan\u2019s international boundaries but has long been settled by Ethiopian farmers.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe in dialogue to solve any problem,\u201d Sudan\u2019s information minister, Faisal Salih, told Reuters. \u201cBut our army will do its duty to take back all our land. Currently our army has taken back between 60% and 70% of Sudanese land.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sudanese forces had acted defensively, and clashes had subsided in the past two days, Salih said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSudanese intelligence reports confirmed that the organisation, training and arming of the forces that attacked were not militias but regular forces,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the talks this week, Ethiopia\u2019s foreign minister, Ato Demeke Mekonnen said the Sudanese military had carried out attacks beginning on Nov. 9.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgricultural products of Ethiopian farmers are looted, their camps are vandalized, and they are also hampered from harvesting their own farms. A number of civilians have been murdered and wounded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed blamed \u201cparties with hidden motives to create hostility and suspicion between peoples\u201d for the violence, in a statement issued on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Sudanese officials say the border was demarcated in the first years of the 20th century, and that negotiations are limited to talks over placing additional markers on the land at 2km rather than 10km intervals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa-Press Ethiopia – Sudan has taken control of most of the land it accuses Ethiopians of encroaching upon near the border between the two countries, the Sudanese information minister said on Saturday. Tensions in the border region have flared since the outbreak of conflict in Ethiopia\u2019s northern Tigray region in early November and the arrival […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[241,262],"class_list":["post-1103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press-ethiopia","tag-sudan"],"yoast_head":"\n