Minister: Sudan Recaptures Border Areas Encroached upon by Ethiopia

On Saturday, Sudanese Minister of Information, Faisal Salih, said that they regained control of most of the border lands, which were encroached upon by Ethiopian forces.

In statements, Salih added, "We believe in dialogue to solve any crisis but 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."

"Sudanese forces had acted defensively, and clashes had subsided in the past two days," the minister noted.

Tensions in the border region have flared since the outbreak of conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region 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.

Border areas crisis

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.

Notably, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed blamed "parties with hidden motives to create hostility and suspicion between peoples" for the violence, in a statement issued on Thursday.

He expressed his confidence in the Sudanese government, as he said: “I am confident that the Sudanese government’s position also lives up to this understanding.”

“The historical and significant relations between the two peoples are deeper than being destroyed by the desires of the reckless and the treachery of conspirators,” the PM affirmed, noting that “These social and cultural relations go back centuries in human history, and have clear connotations that remained and still shining across time and space.”

“The two peoples have introduced a rich heritage, characterized by heroism in the common struggle for freedom and peace, to the whole world, including peoples of the East African region,” Abiy noted. “They have also remained supportive of each other in times of adversity and intensity of crises, jointly defending the values of brotherhood.”