Il Nuovo Postiglione - Ethiopia and Sudan accuse each other of attacks

A civil war has engulfed Sudan since 2023, while neighbouring Ethiopia faces multiple insurgencies across its territory.

Analysts say the conflicts are increasingly overlapping and drawing in external actors from the wider region.

On Tuesday, Ethiopia's foreign ministry accused Sudan's army of supporting "mercenaries" with the Tigray People's Liberation Front, whose armed wing fought a civil war against the federal government from 2020 to 2022.

Relations between the TPLF and the government remain tense.

"Sudan is serving as a hub for various anti-Ethiopian forces," the foreign ministry in Addis Ababa said on X, accusing Tigrayan forces of serving as mercenaries in Sudan.

"The Sudanese armed forces have also provided arms and financial support to these mercenaries, thereby facilitating their incursions along Ethiopia's western frontier," it added.

A senior official with the TPLF, Amanuel Assefa, dismissed the federal government's remarks and told AFP: "We have no connections with the Sudanese authorities."

He said the government was blaming everyone "but themselves for their failures".

Prior to the Ethiopian foreign ministry's comments, Sudan announced it would recall its ambassador to Addis Ababa "for consultation" following drone strikes.

Army spokesperson Assim Awad alleged at a press conference in Khartoum that drone attacks were being launched from Ethiopia in collaboration with the United Arab Emirates.

- UAE accused -

The UAE is seen as the primary backer of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group which has been at war with the Sudanese government since 2023, though it denies the accusations.

It did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on Tuesday's accusations.

Awad said Sudan had "conclusive evidence" that UAE-made drones launched from Ethiopia's northeastern Bahir Dar airport region struck Sudanese army positions across several states on March 1 and 17.

They also targeted sites in Khartoum since Friday, including Khartoum airport on Monday, he said.

He said data recovered from a drone shot down in El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, showed it belonged to the UAE and had taken off from Bahir Dar.

"Based on this documented evidence, we affirm that what the two states of Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates have carried out constitutes direct aggression against Sudan and will not be met with silence," Awad said.

He said Sudanese forces were "at the highest level of readiness".

At the same press conference, Sudan's army-aligned foreign minister, Mohieddin Salem, said his country was ready to "enter into an open confrontation" with Ethiopia "if it becomes necessary".

Ethiopia's foreign ministry dismissed the allegations as "baseless".

In March, the Sudanese military alleged drone attacks were launched "from inside Ethiopian territory", the first public claim of Ethiopian involvement in the conflict.

The UAE has been widely accused of arming the RSF but has repeatedly denied the allegations, while Ethiopia has denied hosting RSF and UAE forces on its territory.

- Drone attacks -

Drone attacks by both Sudan's army and the RSF have intensified across the country in recent months.

On Tuesday, a drone strike hit a fuel station in Kosti, White Nile state, about 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of Khartoum.

It killed three civilians and wounded two others, security and medical sources told AFP.

The RSF carried out a series of drone strikes on Khartoum last year, largely targeting military sites, power stations and water infrastructure.

Although the capital had seen relative calm in recent months, attacks resumed last week.

They killed five civilians in southern Omdurman, across the Nile from central Khartoum, and damaged a hospital in the southern Jebel Awliya area.

On Sunday, a paramilitary drone strike hit the home of army-aligned Sudan Shield Forces commander Abu Aqla Kaykal in central Sudan, killing nine relatives, militia sources told AFP.

Kaykal defected to the army in October 2024 and his fighters later helped recapture parts of central Sudan, including Al-Jazirah state and Khartoum.

Another senior RSF commander, al-Nour al-Guba, defected late last month and was received in Khartoum by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Fighting meanwhile persists across much of the country, including western Darfur and southern Kordofan.

It has spread to southeastern Blue Nile state, bordering Ethiopia and South Sudan, raising fears of a prolonged and fragmented conflict.

bur-rbu-er-maf/gil

F.Ciambrone--INP