Between Sudan and Ethiopia, a decades-long conflict for the El-Fashaga triangle

A local resident carries bottles on a donkey near the village of Doukouli, in an officially Sudanese part of the EL-Fashaga triangle, on March 16, 2021. Territorial disputes are making life difficult for local farmers.

AFP - ASHRAF SHAZLY

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Protests demanding the return of a civilian government to Sudan on Thursday (June 30) and Friday (July 1) overshadowed the situation on the Sudan-Ethiopia border in the El-Fashaga triangle.

The Sudanese army however launched a major offensive in this sector on Tuesday June 28, after the death of seven soldiers and a civilian, killed according to it by the Ethiopian army, which Addis Ababa denies.

But this conflict is not recent: it is rooted in a long history dating back to the last century.

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The triangle of El-Fashaga is a very fertile agricultural territory, watered by an abundant rainy season, sandwiched between the Sudanese desert and the arid hills of Ethiopia.

Sesame, sorghum and tef are cultivated there over 260 km2.

But

for a long time, with mortars, commando raids and

.

On the Sudanese side, we take advantage of the border agreement signed in 1902 between the Ethiopian emperor Menelik II and the British colonist who attributed this territory to Sudan.

On the Ethiopian side, the forces of the neighboring state of Amhara - regional police and peasant militia - claim to ensure the safety of the farmers who cultivate this area, who settled there after the withdrawal of the Sudanese army from the region. in 1995.

Recently , the

has again become a political issue in both countries.

In Sudan, even as thousands of demonstrators demanded the return of civilians to power this week, Sudanese public television displayed, in the name of the sacred union, the hashtag " 

 " while reporting on military operations. .

The Ethiopian government, for its part, is not giving up, refusing to cut itself off from

it and who helped it wage war in Tigray.

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• Sudan

• Ethiopia