Sudan's al-Bashir and Ethiopian Minister of Ethiopia discuss recent border clashes

4 July 2018 (KHARTOUM) – President Omer al-Bashir and Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs Workneh Gebeyehu on Wednesday discussed recent border clashes by stating that They are determined to promote strategic relations between the two countries.

Earlier this week, several reports indicate that a number of Sudanese farmers and a military officer were killed by Ethiopian shooters in the Al-Fashaga region.

million. Gebeyehu, accompanied by a senior security official, arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday to convey a verbal message from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to al-Bashir

said Sudanese Foreign Minister El-Dirdeiry Mohamed Ahmed. recent border clashes are "normal incidents that occur each year during the rainy season".

He added that the Ethiopian prime minister stressed his country's determination to overcome such an incident. He also called for the resolution of these conflicts through cooperation and coordination so as not to harm the separate relations between the two countries.

For his part, Mr. Gebeyehu said that Sudan and Ethiopia would work together for

Ethiopian and Sudanese farmers on both sides of the border are challenging land ownership in the region. Al-Fashaga located in the southeastern part of the eastern state of Gedaref in Sudan.

In recent years, the Sudanese authorities have accused Ethiopia of controlling more than a million acres of Sudanese farmland in the region of Al-Fashaga, claiming that the region was completely isolated from Sudan.

Al-Fashaga covers an area of ​​about 250 square kilometers and it has about 600,000 acres of fertile land. In addition, rivers circulate in the region, including the rivers Atbara, Setait and Baslam.

The present borders between Sudan and Ethiopia were drawn by the British and Italian colonizers in 1908. Both governments have borders and promote joint projects between people on both sides for the benefit of local people.

The Joint Sudan-Ethiopia Joint Committee announced in December 2013 that it had reached an agreement to end disputes between farmers on both sides of the border.

In November 2014, former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and President al-Bashir instructed their foreign ministers to set a date for the resumption of demarcation of the border. The operation had ceased after the death of former Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

(ST)