It prevented a delegation from crossing its lands.. Why does Khartoum have reservations about Asmara's role in the file of eastern Sudan?

Khartoum -

The issue of the return of a delegation of leaders of civil administrations in eastern Sudan and representatives of some political forces in the region has raised a controversy about the role that Asmara wants to play in the file of eastern Sudan, and what are its interests in this region?

Why does Khartoum reserve a role for Asmara?

What are the consequences of the incident and its repercussions on the relations of the two countries?

On Thursday, the Sudanese government refused to allow the delegation to cross into Eritrea to participate in a forum sponsored by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, to discuss issues of the East.

Geography and ethnicity facts

The border between Sudan and Eritrea extends from Ras Qassar on the Red Sea to Umm Hajar at the Sudan-Eritrea-Ethiopia triangle, with an estimated distance of 600 km in a flat land without any geographical barriers, with the exception of two seasonal rivers that originate in Eritrea and form deltas inside Sudan, the Gash and Barka rivers.

In addition to the geographical borders, there is a population overlap between the two countries, as most of the ethnic components of eastern Sudan have an extension within Eritrea, especially in the western part of it known as the Gash Barka region and the Red Sea Coast region.

This overlap played political roles during the Eritrean struggle to gain their independence from Ethiopia, and the lands of eastern Sudan at that time were a background area for the Eritrean organizations and a crossing point for their arming.

This effect continued during the rule of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (1989-2019), especially in the 1990s, when Eritrea sheltered part of the Sudanese armed opposition, and some lands in eastern Sudan were the scene of its military operations against al-Bashir’s government.

How did the situation in eastern Sudan exploded?

Although the region is rich in its natural agricultural and mineral resources, it is - according to United Nations statistics - the poorest region of Sudan.

The people of the region, who historical accounts indicate that they have been present in this region for 7,000 years, complain of marginalization and poverty, as well as conflicts between some ethnic components in eastern Sudan.

The Juba Peace Agreement signed in October 2020 between the Revolutionary Front (an alliance that includes several armed movements in Sudan) and the transitional government that took over after the fall of Al-Bashir, was the spark that ignited the disputes in the east, when one of the tracks of the agreement was named the “Eastern Sudan track.” Although at that time there was no military rebellion in the east, but only opposition groups allied with armed movements in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

The Beja - an ethnic group consisting of several tribes from the original inhabitants of the region - opposed the agreement, claiming that the signatories do not represent the whole region. They did not end the closure until after the actions of the army commander and the dissolution of the transitional government.

In mid-December, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), Vice-President of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, announced the suspension of the "Eastern Sudan Track" agreement until "the people of the East agree", after consulting with government parties and mediation.

On the fourth of the same month, the Beja Optical Council approved a government request to postpone the closure of Port Sudan port and the national road linking Khartoum and Port Sudan.

At the same time, a second group comprising the Beni Amer and the Habab tribes (which have an extension in Eritrea) supported the peace agreement, which caused a state of communal division in eastern Sudan, and raised fears that the region would enter a cycle of violence.

Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan (left) received written messages from Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki related to the relations of the two countries (Reuters)

Why did Eritrea intervene?

Last May, the head of the Sovereignty Council in Sudan, Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan (Hemedti), received written messages from Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, offering Eritrean mediation to resolve the crisis in Sudan in general and East in particular.

A Western diplomat told Al Jazeera Net, "Molly, in the assistant secretary of state, informed the head of the Transitional Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, during her long visit to Khartoum in June, that no role for Eritrea in the Sudanese file is allowed."

This position clashed with Eritrea’s conviction that the realities of geography, ethnic composition and its relationship with political actors in eastern Sudan necessitate a role for it, and its mediation between the Beja Conference and the Sudanese government culminated in the signing of the Asmara Peace Agreement in May 2006, an agreement that ended about 12 years of conflict interspersed with sporadic armed operations.

In turn, the Beja Optical Council accuses some of those who signed the part of eastern Sudan in the Juba Peace Agreement of being related to Asmara, and the leader of the Council, Syed Ali Abu Amna - told Al Jazeera Net - "Some of these signatories hold Eritrean citizenship and participated in carrying arms with Eritrean organizations." .

A Sudanese security official closely related to the file of Sudanese-Eritrean relations told Al Jazeera Net that Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki is convinced that eastern Sudan is part of his country's national security by virtue of neighborhood and overlap, so he seeks to have a special relationship with officials in the three states of eastern Sudan (Kassala). Red Sea, and Gedaref).

The official adds that there is another aspect related to Afwerki’s personality, as he considers himself the most experienced leader in the region and has a vision, so we find him once immersed in a Sudanese file and sometimes in an Ethiopian or Somali issue or in Djibouti, and he plays on international and regional contradictions in his intervention in the files of neighboring countries.

Foreign Minister-designate Ali Al-Sadiq: We did not respond to a request from the Eritrean embassy in Khartoum regarding the meeting (communication sites)

Why Khartoum prevented the delegation crossing?

The Sudanese security official attributed the reason for preventing the eastern Sudanese delegation from crossing to Eritrea to the fact that it did not include representatives of the Sudanese government, and told Al Jazeera Net that "the Sudanese authorities realized in the last moments how to allow a meeting to be held to resolve differences between Sudanese components in another country without the presence of the government? Taking into account Eritrea is pursuing its interests in this region."

However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge, Ali Al-Sadiq, said - in a statement distributed by the ministry - that his ministry had received a request from the Eritrean embassy in Khartoum for the meeting, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to it, which is considered a rejection of the request.

One of those who were returned from the border - who asked not to be named - said that "preparing for the meeting took more than a month. Some tribal leaders received phone calls from President Afwerki's office directly, others contacted them by the Eritrean ambassador to Sudan Issa Ahmed Issa, and others through Sudanese mediator.

In turn, the security official confirmed that despite the government's refusal of the request, Eritrea continued its preparations, and said, "If the Sudanese agencies were aware of these contacts and did not take action against them, then this is a shortcoming, and if they do not know, it is a major calamity."

What is the fate of the meeting?

In a video recording of the Eritrean ambassador in Khartoum, he said - addressing the invitees to the meeting at the border, after the Sudanese authorities prevented them - "We will not despair, and we will make arrangements and call for the meeting within 10 days."

For his part, Sayyid Muhammad Al-Amin Turk, head of the Hadandawa tribes and head of the Supreme Council of Beja and Independent Amauds, and the most prominent of those who were supposed to participate in the meeting, said that "there are arrangements between the Sudanese and Eritrean governments, and when they are completed, the meeting can be held."

The security official, in turn, explained that Afwerki's nature makes him assure that Asmara will repeat the ball again, and continued, "The arrangements for the meeting were made directly from Afwerki's office, and now the matter has become a personal challenge for him, and with the nature of his stubborn personality that does not give up easily, he will try in various ways to hold the meeting, and certainly he will have impact on the relationship of the two countries.