Ethiopia calls on Sudan to commit to peaceful border settlement 

Ethiopia called on Friday on the Sudanese authorities to avoid “aggression and provocation” and to commit to a “peaceful settlement” regarding the border dispute.

This came in a statement issued by the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry a few days after Addis Ababa announced its acceptance of mediation to settle the border dispute with Khartoum.

The statement noted that Ethiopia urged the government of Sudan to: “Refrain from aggression, abstain from any provocation and commit to a peaceful settlement of the border issue.”

The statement also called on: “African countries to offer advice to the Sudanese government with the aim of ending the ongoing border dispute, through the mechanisms available between the two countries and in a peaceful manner.”

The statement considered that: “Pushing the two friendly peoples of Ethiopia and Sudan into an unjustified war is a fatal mistake that would jeopardise the peace, stability and development in the two countries and in the region in general.”

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The Foreign Ministry accused the Sudanese army of: “Looting property, burning camps, displacing thousands of Ethiopians and taking over evacuated Ethiopian army camps.”

On Saturday, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry announced its: “Willingness to accept mediation to settle the border dispute as soon as Khartoum evacuates its troops from the area it has occupied by force.”

For some time now, the borders of the two countries have witnessed escalating tensions. On 31 December, Khartoum announced that its army controlled all the Sudanese territory in the Al-Fashaqa border area with Ethiopia.

On 13 January, the Ethiopian Ambassador to Khartoum Yibtalal Amero accused the Sudanese army of seizing nine camps in Ethiopian territory since last November.

Sudan is calling for the establishment of border markers with Ethiopia based on the 1902 agreement signed in Addis Ababa on 15 May of the same year, between Ethiopia and Britain (on behalf of Sudan). The first article of the agreement clarifies the international borders between the two countries.

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