Sudan recalls ambassdor from Ethiopia as tensions rise

Sudan has recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia, the foreign ministry said Sunday, reporting Addis Ababa had spurned its efforts at trying to broker a ceasefire in war-torn Tigray. 

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, chair of the regional body IGAD, wanted "to encourage all Ethiopian sides to reach a ceasefire agreement, and engage in comprehensive political talks", the ministry said in a statement. 

But last week Ethiopia said their trust in some of Sudan's leaders had been "eroded", and accused the Sudanese army of launching an "incursion" into their territory.

Northern Ethiopia has been wracked by fighting since last November, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the region's then ruling party. 

Tens of thousands of Ethiopians have fled to refugee camps in Sudan, to escape a conflict that the UN says has pushed 400,000 people into famine-like conditions.

“Ethiopia will improve its position if it considered what Sudan could do … instead of completely rejecting all of its efforts,” a statement from the foreign ministry read on Sunday. 

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Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday about the conflict in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray. 

Hamdok’s offer came within the framework of his presidency of IGAD, a grouping that includes Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia, the statement said. 

Khartoum’s move was the latest sign of deteriorating ties between the two neighbours. The tensions began after Sudan deployed troops to its border with Ethiopia late last year. 

The decades-long border dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia centres on large swaths of agricultural land Sudan says are within its borders in the al-Fashaqa area, according to an agreement that demarcated the borders between the two nations in the early 1900s. 

The two nations have held rounds of talks, most recently in Khartoum in December, to settle the dispute, but have not made progress. 

The dispute has escalated in recent months after Sudan deployed troops to al-Fashaqa. Sudan said it reclaimed most of its territory and called on Ethiopia to withdraw troops from at least two points it says are inside Sudan. 

Ethiopian officials, however, accused Sudan of taking advantage of the Tigray conflict region to enter Ethiopian territory. It has called for Sudanese troops to return to their positions before the Tigray fighting erupted in November. 

The border tensions come at a time when Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt are also trying to resolve a three-way dispute over Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. 

Relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa have also soured over the contested border region of Fashaga, a fertile strip long cultivated by Ethiopian farmers, but claimed by Sudan. 

Billene Seyoum, spokeswoman for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, said the issue "needs to be thoroughly addressed, before Sudan could be entertained as a credible party in terms of facilitating such kind of negotiations". 

Sudan's foreign ministry on Sunday said it had "followed statements made by senior Ethiopian officials refusing Sudan's help to end the bloody conflict in Tigray, citing a lack of neutrality and (Sudan's) occupation of Ethiopian territories," the ministry statement read. 

It dismissed the statements as "allegations with no basis", adding that "Sudan has recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia for consultations". 

The two countries are also at odds over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the centre of a regional dispute ever since Addis Ababa broke ground on the project in 2011. 

Downstream nations Egypt and Sudan both fear the Blue Nile mega-dam threatens the waters they depend on.