Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki sent a message to Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok about the 8-month armed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray province. According to a statement made by his cabinet, Osman Saleh, Eritrean Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Presidential Advisor Yemane Gebreab delivered a verbal message from Afwerki to Hamdok on Thursday evening.
According to the statement, the Eritrean leader responded to a message from Hamdok, who is also the chairman of the East African bloc, IGAD, about the terrible violence in Tigray.
The Sudanese prime minister highlighted the need “to establish peaceful and political solutions in Ethiopia that ensure Ethiopia’s unity and meet the aspirations of the Ethiopian people,” in a recent message to a number of IGAD and African leaders, according to the statement. He also emphasized the importance of prioritizing humanitarian issues.
After fighting erupted in the Tigray region last year, Hamdok offered to mediate between the government and the TPLF, but Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declined. The communications ministry said the two sides held “frank and thorough discussions” and agreed on the need for a regional effort to solve the “internal and external difficulties” in a statement released in Asmara.
The Ethiopian foreign ministry, on its part, stated that Ethiopians living in Sudan reject “undue external demands on the Ethiopian government and involvement in the country’s internal affairs.”
Ethiopian Ambassador to Khartoum Yibeltal Aemero called on Ethiopians in Sudan to condemn the TPLF “for its horrific deeds” during a meeting with Ethiopians within the embassy. “Ethiopia would win the just war against the racist TPLF and ensure the survival and wellbeing of the state,” Aemero further said.
