A Sudanese military statement has indicated that several of its soldiers were killed while repulsing an attack by “Ethiopian army forces and militias…who sought to intimidate and spoil the harvest.”
The statement also stated that its forces ‘repulsed the attack’ and inflicted ‘heavy losses of life and equipment on the Ethiopian army and militias.
In the renewed fighting with Ethiopia in the disputed Al Fashaqa region, in what could mark the start of an escalation of tensions in the agricultural area sandwiched between two rivers, where Ethiopia’s northern Amhara and Tigray regions meet Sudan’s eastern Gedaref state, dating back decades.
Attacks in the disputed region tend to escalate during harvest time, often by Ethiopian militias. The disputed region has been under Sudan for a little over a decade since Ethiopia ceded its claim on the condition that Ethiopian farmers be allowed to stay in their farms.
The news of the renewed fighting will escalate tensions in an already fragile region, with protests in Sudan forcing the military’s hand after a coup, and Ethiopia’s federal government at war with Tigray, which borders al-Fashaqa.
The border tensions have intensified strains in relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa, who, along with Egypt, have failed to strike a deal over the filling and operation of Ethiopia’s Blue Nile mega-dam.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, set to be Africa’s largest hydroelectric project, has been a source of tension in the Nile basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on it nearly a decade ago.
Sudan however views the barrage as a threat to its own dams without a binding deal over the filling and operation of Ethiopia’s dam.
