Sudanese Foreign Ministry Summons Ambassador to Ethiopia For Consultation

Sudanese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that the government has summoned its ambassador to Ethiopia for consultations over the latest developments in the ties between both countries, reported Reuters.

On Sunday, the foreign ministry claimed that Ethiopian forces had crossed into Sudanese territory in an act of aggression. It currently remains unclear if consultations with the Ambassador would be about that particular incident.

Sudan and Ethiopia are locked in a dispute about their borders and the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or GERD on the Blue Nile River.

There have been clashes between the Sudanese and Ethiopian forces over Al-Fashqa, an area of fertile land settled by Ethiopian farmers that Sudan claims is located on the Sudanese side of a border demarcated at the beginning of the 20th century.

Treaties signed in 1902 and 1907 between Ethiopia and Britain was intended to define the border between Sudan and Ethiopia. But Ethiopia has long claimed that parts of the land given to Sudan actually belong to them.

Tension began to flare up in November 2020, after conflict erupted in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region along the disputed border.

The Sudanese government said last month that an Ethiopian aircraft had crossed the border, an allegation that Ethiopia denies.

In related news, the African Union has reportedly assigned Mauritanian diplomat Mohamed El Hacen Ould Lebatt to lead mediation talks between Sudan and Ethiopia over the border issue.

According to a Mauritanian media report, Ould Lebatt would start discussions late Wednesday.  As per the report, the diplomat would make an urgent visit to Khartoum. It did not give any further details.

Ould Lebatt also led successful negotiations for reconciliation in the Sudanese crisis in 2019 after the army ousted the regime of Omar al-Bashir.  

The African Union, Sudan and Ethiopia did not provide any detail regarding the talks.