Ethiopia has denied staging an attack along its shared border with Sudan over the weekend, blaming disturbances in the disputed zone on rebels from the country’s war-torn Tigray province.
Legesse Tulu, an Ethiopian government spokesman, denied reports that the military had attacked Sudan as “groundless” in statements broadcast on state television on Sunday.
Instead, he blamed the violence on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been locked in a gruesome campaign against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government since November 2020 and claims to be approaching the capital Addis Ababa.
Legesse stated that a large group of insurgents, bandits and terrorists had entered from Sudan. But, he has not provided any evidence. Also, Legesse claimed that the TPLF was training in Sudan and receiving support from unspecified foreign backers.
Regardless, Legesse noted that Ethiopia was keen to resolve the matter peacefully. “The Ethiopian National Defence Force does not have an agenda to attack any sovereign country. There is land that the Sudanese forces have invaded. The government is sitting down to resolve the dispute in a peaceful process, through dialogue and negotiation,” he said.
During the conflict between the Abiy Ahmed administration and the TPLF for more than a year, the border crisis between Ethiopia and Sudan escalated with the redeployment of the Sudanese army to this region.
With the TPLF’s march towards the capital Addis Ababa, Abiy Ahmed also went to the front line, and it was announced that the town of Chifra, which was strategic for the transition to the Djibouti port, was taken under control by the Ethiopian army again.
Six Sudanese soldiers were killed in an attack in the disputed Al-Fashaga border area with Ethiopia on Sunday, according to the Sudanese military.
