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Sudan said Thursday that its forces had taken control of all Sudanese territory in a border area settled by Ethiopian farmers, after weeks of fighting.
Ethiopia, however, accused its neighbor of sending forces into its territory to attack.
Border tensions have been reignited since the outbreak of conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia in early November, which sent more than 50,000 refugees, mainly from Tigray, to flee to eastern Sudan.
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In recent weeks there have been clashes over agricultural land in the al-Fashqa area, which lies within Sudan’s international borders but has been settled by Ethiopian farmers for years.
On Saturday, Sudan said it had taken control of most, but not all, of the territory.
On Thursday, Acting Foreign Minister Omar Gamareldin told a news conference that Sudan had already taken the rest, Reuters reported.
Talks between the two countries over the border broke down last week.
Sudanese officials say Ethiopia has not formally disputed the border, which was demarcated decades ago. But comments from Ethiopian officials suggest disagreement.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Dina Mufti accused Sudan of sending troops to its territory.
“The condition has reached a point where some [Sudanese] the political leaders said it was their land, and they controlled their own land and they weren’t going to leave the land, “he said.
Egypt accused
In an Independence Day speech late Thursday, the head of Sudan’s sovereign council said his troops had not left Sudan.
“Sudan has not crossed and will not cross international borders or violate our neighboring Ethiopia,” General Abdelfattah al-Burhan said.
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He said Sudan was seeking to solve the problem of the invasion of farmers through dialogue.
Ethiopia has accused Sudan of carrying out attacks against farmers starting in early November. While Sudan has said that the forces it has engaged with are trained and armed like regular troops.
Ethiopian spokesman Mufti also blamed an unidentified third country for Sudan’s behavior, which he said was seeking instability in the region and occupying Sudanese land.
That seemed to be a reference to Egypt, which summoned the Ethiopian chargé d’affaires to demand an explanation for Mufti’s comments.
Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have so far failed to end a three-way dispute over Ethiopia’s new Great Renaissance Dam, built on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, which Egypt sees as a threat to its agricultural economy and which Ethiopia began to fill in July.
