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The UN on Tuesday denied claims that refugee camps in Sudan were being used by Ethiopian rebels as a breech hole after Ethiopian officials said fighters were captured with refugee ID cards.
Tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees have crossed the border into Sudan since war broke out 10 months ago in the northernmost region of Tigray, exacerbating tensions between the two neighbors in the Horn of Africa.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to Tigray to overthrow the regional ruling party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray, saying the move followed TPLF attacks on army camps.
Although the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize laureate vowed swift victory, the war continued and spread to neighboring Afar and Amhara regions.
In recent days, Ethiopian officials have said that TPLF fighters recently crossed Sudan into Ethiopia with ID issued by the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
“The TPLF tried to spread the conflict by entering the regions of Benishangul Gumuz and Amhara by crossing the long Sudanese border,” Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said Monday evening.
“All his attempts in these areas were unsuccessful, but new evidence has emerged. Some TPLF soldiers infiltrated from the Sudanese side were captured with UNHCR identity cards.
A UN official told AFP on Tuesday that UNHCR was aware of reports that registered Ethiopian refugees in Sudan were now involved in the conflict, but said the agency was “not in a position to to check them “.
“Since the start of the influx of refugees, measures have been put in place at border entry points and all identified armed elements seeking refuge have been disarmed and separated from the civilian population,” the official said.
“The allegations of military training taking place in the refugee camps are unfounded,” he added.
The official said UNHCR was working to maintain “the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum,” but that it was not the agency’s role to determine whether those returning had participated in the fighting. .
Cross-border tensions
Relations are frosty between Khartoum and Addis Ababa, with the two countries at odds over the Tigray conflict, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile and the use by Ethiopian farmers of a claimed fertile border area. by Sudan.
Ethiopia’s Tigray region and neighboring countries. By (AFP) Last month, Sudan recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia, saying Addis Ababa had pushed back its efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the Tigray conflict.
Last weekend, Sudan denied Ethiopia’s claim that an armed group crossed the border between the two countries in the region where GERD is located.
Sudan has also said it has “full control” over its borders and “does not allow its border to be exploited” by any party to the conflict in Ethiopia.
Sudanese news agency SUNA reported on Sunday that weapons were seized from an Ethiopian Airlines passenger flight landing in Khartoum, suspected of being “intended for use in anti-state crimes, to impede the transition. democratic and prevent the transition to civilian rule “.
Yet the Sudanese interior ministry said on Monday that the shipment that belonged to a licensed trader was “legitimate”.
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