Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday said his country does not want to have a war with Sudan, as tensions surrounding the control over a contested region along the border of the two countries have escalated in recent months sparking fears of a broader conflict, reported Africa News.
“Ethiopia also has many problems, and we are not ready to go to battle. We don’t need war. It is better to settle it in a peaceful manner,” Abiy told parliament.
The Ethiopian prime minister stressed that Ethiopia did not want war with its neighboring country over the decades-old territorial dispute. He described Sudan as a brotherly country whose people loved Ethiopia.
The dispute is over Al-Fashaqa, an agricultural area located between two rivers, where Ethiopia’s northern Amhara and Tigray regions meet Sudan’s eastern Gedaref state.
The fertile piece of land is claimed by both countries and has been the main reason for conflict, most recently as fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region sent some 60,000 refugees fleeing into Sudan.
According to Sudan’s state media, Khartoum sent troops into the Al-Fashaqa region, “to recapture the stolen lands and take up positions on the international lines.”
In December, Khartoum sent troops to Al-Fashaqa after Ethiopian forces and militias allegedly ambushed Sudanese troops, killing at least four soldiers.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Sudan agreed on a mediation proposal by the United Arab Emirates to reduce political and diplomatic tensions with Ethiopia over the border dispute and Addis Ababa’s construction of the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile River. The talks over the operation and filling of the GERD, which will affect water supply downstream on the Nile in Sudan and Egypt, are deadlocked.
On Tuesday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy reaffirmed that the reservoir of the Nile dam would be filled again this year as delaying it by a year would cost the government a whopping $1 billion.
He said Ethiopia has no intention of causing any harm to Sudan and Egypt, but the people also don’t want to live in darkness.
