Ethiopia announced today, Tuesday, that it will not hold border talks with Sudan until it withdraws its forces from the disputed territories, while Khartoum confirms that the Sudanese army has deployed within its borders with Ethiopia, and that it does not want a war with anyone.
The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti said in a press conference that his country is committed to a "peaceful" solution to the crisis, but wants Sudan to withdraw.
"For us, negotiation is a precondition which is the return of Sudan to the previous land that it controlled, and then we can return to negotiations," he added.
Dina Mufti said that any possible mediation efforts would require Sudan to withdraw its forces to what they were before the end of last December, when Ethiopia spoke of the first breach of its borders.
"We have technical and political mechanisms and committees, and both countries need to return to these mechanisms of solution through dialogue," the Ethiopian official added.
Tensions increased between the two countries over the Fashaqa area, which has an area of about 250 square kilometers, and is claimed by Sudan, while Ethiopian farmers exploit its fertile lands.
Al-Fashaqa - which has witnessed sporadic clashes over the years - is located on the borders of the troubled Tigray region in Ethiopia, where a bloody conflict broke out last November between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigrayan regional forces, and the conflict prompted about 60,000 Ethiopians to flee to Sudan.
Ethiopian bombing
A Sudanese military official told Al-Jazeera that the forces of his country's army came under attack the day before yesterday, Sunday, to an Ethiopian bombing on the border in the state of Gedaref in eastern Sudan, which an Ethiopian source denied, saying that there had been no border skirmishes with Sudan.
Since the beginning of the month, Sudan accused the "Ethiopian forces and militias" of ambushing the Sudanese forces along the border, while Ethiopia accused Sudan of killing many civilians in attacks using heavy machine guns.
Khartoum said on December 31 that its forces had regained control of all border lands controlled by "Ethiopian militias" supported by the Ethiopian army, which Addis Ababa denies, and says that these groups are outlaws.
In 1902, an agreement was concluded to demarcate the boundaries between Great Britain - the colonial power in Sudan at the time - and Ethiopia, but the demarcation still lacked clear lines.
The border dispute comes at a sensitive time for relations between the two countries, amid efforts that also include Egypt to reach an agreement on the huge Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile.