Talks on the demarcation of the border between Sudan and Ethiopia are scheduled for Tuesday – Africa – World



[ad_1]

Sudan and Ethiopia will hold negotiations next week to delineate their shared border, a statement from the office of Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said on Sunday.

The talks will take place on Tuesday, a week after Ethiopian forces ambushed and killed Sudanese troops along the border.

“Hamdok and his Ethiopian counterpart Abiy Ahmed discussed on Sunday the meeting of the committee to delineate the borders to be held on December 22,” the statement said.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of a summit held in Djibouti on Sunday of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African regional bloc comprising eight countries.

The last border talks were held in May in Addis Ababa, but another meeting scheduled for the following month was canceled.

Sudan and Ethiopia share a 1,600-kilometer-long (almost 1,000-mile) long border.

In 1902 an agreement was reached to draw the border between Great Britain, the colonial power in Sudan at the time, and Ethiopia, but the agreement lacked clear demarcation lines.

Sudanese state media reported on Saturday that Khartoum had deployed soldiers to the eastern border region of Al-Fashaqa, the site of sporadic fighting, where Ethiopian farmers cultivate fertile land in Sudan’s claimed territory.

The area also borders Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region, where clashes broke out last month, causing tens of thousands of Ethiopians fleeing the conflict to cross into Sudan.

Sudan’s army said troops were attacked Tuesday night in an “ambush by Ethiopian forces and militias inside Sudanese territories.”

Sudanese media said four soldiers were killed and 27 wounded, although the military did not confirm the reports.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who heads the armed forces and the Sovereign Council, Sudan’s highest executive body, visited the area this week.

Addis Ababa wanted to downplay the significance of the incident and said it did not threaten the relationship between the two countries.

* This story was edited by Ahram Online.

Short link:



[ad_2]