Sudan, Ethiopia blame each other for border violations amid Nile Dam dispute
The border dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia may affect the crisis over Ethiopia’s controversial Nile Dam, amid fears of the situation turning into an armed conflict.
The decades-old border dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia was recently renewed after the two countries exchanged accusations of violating the other's territorial sovereignty, amid fears that the situation could turn into an armed conflict.
Speaking at the Ethiopian parliament on May 17, Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Demeke Mekonnen said that the Sudanese forces forcibly occupied Ethiopian lands in al-Fashqa area in late 2020, taking advantage of Ethiopia's preoccupation with its war with the rebels in Tigray.
“It is very unfortunate that Sudan violated the demarcation of the border when we were busy with law enforcement in the northern part of the country,” Mekonnen said, blaming the Sudanese forces for “the displacement of civilians and the destruction of property in the areas they occupied.”
He also criticized Sudan's continuous attempts to change the demography of the invaded area by building infrastructure projects, stressing that this is “totally unacceptable.”
