The head of the Sovereignty Council in Sudan, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, said yesterday that his country will not again abandon its territories, referring to the Fashaqa border area with Ethiopia, which the Sudanese army had retaken, and Khartoum had accused Addis Ababa of escalation, and one of its combat aircraft violated the Sudanese airspace.

Lieutenant General Al-Burhan, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, added that the Sudanese army is able to protect the country's lands, in a speech during his visit yesterday to the state of Gedaref, which borders on Ethiopia, and to which the Fashaqa region (eastern Sudan) belongs.

Al-Burhan's statements came after the killing of 5 women and a child and the loss of two women in the Quraysha region (east of the country) following an attack by the Ethiopian gangs of the Shifta, in light of the escalation of military tension between Khartoum and Addis Ababa, and reinforcements on the borders of both sides.

Ethiopia denies it supports the aforementioned gangs and says they are outlaw groups.

🌀 Video | Lieutenant General Al-Burhan's Corner addresses the armed forces deployed inside the Sudanese borders in the Eastern Region Khartoum 13-1-2021 ____________________ # Media_the Transitional Sovereignty Council # Sudan

Posted by Transitional Sovereignty Council - Sudan on Wednesday, January 13, 2021

The Sudanese official, addressing forces deployed at the border, stated that his country had not sought war with Ethiopia, accusing it of starting the assault on Sudanese territory, and Al-Burhan stressed that the army would continue to retake all Sudanese lands along the border strip.

Tension wallpaper

Because of a decades-long conflict over Al-Fashaqa, a land within the international borders of Sudan that has been settled by Ethiopian farmers for a long time, clashes erupted between forces from the two countries that lasted for weeks late last year, with an area of ​​about 250 square kilometers.

And Sudan announced at the end of last month - after armed confrontations that lasted about two weeks - that its forces had regained all the lands that were controlled by armed Ethiopian groups in the Al-Fashaqa area, which was settled by Ethiopian farmers supported by Ethiopian militias.

The tension exacerbated when Ethiopia accused the Sudanese forces of incursion into its territory, which Khartoum denied.

A statement by the head of the Sovereignty Council indicated that al-Burhan offered condolences yesterday, Wednesday, to the citizens who were assassinated by the Shifta gangs.

Breach of the atmosphere

Yesterday, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that an Ethiopian military plane had penetrated the Sudanese airspace, and the ministry described the matter as a dangerous escalation that would cause more tension.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry had announced before that the areas of Layy and Kole in the locality of Quraysha, near the border with Ethiopia, yesterday, when it described an armed aggression left by the "Ethiopian gangs of the Shifta."

Hours before the issuance of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry's statement about an Ethiopian air breach, the Ethiopian ambassador in Khartoum, Ybltal Amero, demanded that the Sudanese forces withdraw to their previous positions so that the dispute between the two countries could be peacefully resolved.

The Ethiopian ambassador said during a meeting of the Sudanese Border Commission to discuss developments in the border region with Ethiopia;

Sudan took sudden military actions after the Ethiopian forces were busy fighting in the Tigray region last November.

Amero added that it was not expected that the Sudanese forces would "occupy" 9 positions, especially in the context of what he described as the distinguished relations between the two countries, as he put it.

The Ethiopian ambassador called for a remedy.

It is noteworthy that the border military tension between Sudan and Ethiopia comes at a sensitive time, as the tripartite negotiations between Khartoum, Cairo and Addis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam reached an impasse.