Sudan and Ethiopia closed their respective consulates in a gesture of surrender: reports | War in Sudan News

Khartoum’s decision comes after Ethiopia reportedly closed the Sudanese consulate and ordered six diplomats to leave the country.

Sudan closed the Ethiopian consulate near its shared border and expelled its diplomats, hours after Addis Ababa expelled six Sudanese diplomats and closed the Khartoum consulate in the region, according to media reports.

Ethiopian and Sudanese officials told Reuters and AFP news agencies of these retaliatory exchanges on Wednesday, as tensions continue to rise between the two countries. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Sudan accuses Ethiopia of aiding the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a Sudanese paramilitary group involved in a civil war against the country’s regular army.

Ethiopia, for its part, accuses Sudan of supporting rebels that the Addis Ababa government is fighting in the northern Tigray region.

The allegations and counter-allegations, which both sides deny, have raised fears that the two conflicts could bleed into each other, spawning a wider war in the Horn of Africa.

Reuters, citing a senior official, reported that Ethiopia had ordered six staff members at the Sudanese consulate in the border town of Asosa to leave within 48 hours. The official asked to remain anonymous so they could discuss a sensitive diplomatic issue.

The Associated Press news agency also reported the action, citing an Ethiopian intelligence official. A Sudanese official corroborated these expulsions, adding that Ethiopian authorities had summoned the Sudanese ambassador on Sunday to announce the closure of the consulate.

The Sudanese official said the staff left Tuesday evening. The agency said none of the officials provided a specific reason for the evictions.

In retaliation, the Sudanese government closed the Ethiopian consulate in the eastern town of Gadarif and expelled diplomats working there, two Sudanese officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

An official separately told AFP that Sudan responded by “informing staff at the Ethiopian consulate in Gadarif,” near the border, “that they were persona non grata, and gave them 48 hours to leave the country.”

Regional tensions

The expulsions came after Sudan filed a complaint against Ethiopia with the United Nations Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council on Sunday, accusing Ethiopia of allowing the RSF to use its territory to launch deadly drone attacks against civilian infrastructure in Sudan.

“The Sudanese government remains committed to its right to defend its territory. However, it is making every effort to avoid open war with Ethiopia,” said Amjad Farid, political and foreign affairs advisor to Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council. The Sudanese Council is the internationally recognized collective head of state of the country.

A direct military confrontation with Addis Ababa would put a strain on an already exhausted Sudanese military apparatus, still involved in intense fighting with the RSF in the southeast of the country.

Addis Ababa denies supporting the RSF in the civil war in Sudan.

Fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which erupted in 2023, has since killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 14 million people. The civil war has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the UN.

Drone strikes on electricity substations in the northern Sudanese towns of al-Dabba and Abu Hamad cut power on Sunday. The Sudanese government and rights group Emergency Lawyers blamed RSF.

The conflict has more widely disrupted electricity and water supplies and threatened essential medical services.

Ethiopia’s order regarding Sudanese diplomats also follows its decision to expel 10 Eritrean diplomats and close the Addis Ababa embassy in Eritrea on October 1. Eritrea responded by severing diplomatic relations.

Ethiopia also expelled an Egyptian diplomat last month. Relations with Cairo have long been strained over Ethiopia’s massive dam on the Blue Nile, which Egypt fears could threaten its water supplies.

Addis Ababa has accused Sudan, Egypt and Eritrea of ​​supporting Tigrayan rebels who launched an offensive against Ethiopian government forces in September. All three countries have denied the accusations.