Sudan denies the occupation of Ethiopian lands, and Addis Ababa demands a return to the previous situation

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mansour Bolad denied the validity of the allegations that Sudan occupies Ethiopian territory.

In statements he made on Wednesday, Bolad said that what the Sudanese army had done was that it redeployed its forces in the border area with Ethiopia, and that it did not go beyond Sudanese territory.

In turn, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Dina Mufti, said that the areas that the Sudanese army entered on the border between the two countries are Ethiopian territory whose maps have been determined by foreign colonialism.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera, the Mufti of Khartoum demanded respect for the situation that existed before the military confrontations that took place late last year, awaiting a peaceful solution to this issue, referring to forces - he did not name them - trying to sow discord between the peoples of the two countries and benefit from the conflict, as he put it.

In the context, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud discussed with a member of the Sudanese Transitional Sovereignty Council, Muhammad al-Faki, in the capital, Riyadh, on the developments of the situation on the Sudanese-Ethiopian borders.

After the visit, Al-Faki said that he briefed the Saudi side about the situation in Sudan's eastern borders and the relationship with Ethiopia after the recent events in the Fashaqa border region, stressing his country's right to defend its lands.

He added that the outbreak of any war in this region threatens the region, and could be reflected in the security of the Red Sea, calling on the Kingdom to support efforts to demarcate the borders between Sudan and Ethiopia.

While Sudan has repeatedly stressed that it will not withdraw its forces from the lands in which it has been deployed before weeks, nor will it give up an inch of it, Ethiopia has said that it will not enter into negotiations with it on the demarcation of the borders in the disputed area unless the Sudanese forces withdraw from it.

Tension increased between the two countries over the Fashaqa area, which is located within the Sudanese state of Gedaref, with an area of ​​about 250 square kilometers, and Sudan asserts that the area is within its internationally recognized borders, and before the recent confrontations, Ethiopian farmers were exploiting its fertile lands.