Juba, South Sudan
June 21, 2021 – The governments of Ethiopia and Sudan have agreed to mitigate the dispute along their contested borders.
This came in the wake of a meeting between military personnel from the two sides on Sunday.
In a statement seen by Nyamilepedia, the military delegations of the two countries met in the Galabat town of Gedaref State in Eastern Sudan.
Brigadier General Babikir Ibrahim al-Haj, Commander of the Intelligence of the Eastern Military Region, headed the Sudanese delegation while the Ethiopian delegation was chaired by the head of North Gondar in the Amhara Region.
The meeting was mainly focused on the security threats to both sides including the recurring attacks on Sudanese farmers and herders by armed Ethiopian militias, and Ethiopian fears of the establishment of camps in Eastern Sudan to host refugees from the Tigray and Qumuz.
The two delegations also resolved to combat human trafficking, drug, and arms smuggling. They concurred to exchange information about the prisoners, the reasons for their arrest, and possible release.
The two parties reaffirmed the need to prevent military training for the Ethiopian refugees, to expel farmers from the military areas, and maintain control of the border, a military source told an online newspaper after the meeting.
The two military delegations also addressed the demarcation of the international borders and both agreed to discuss it at the level of political leadership between the two countries.
The last meeting of the joint political committee between the two countries was held in Khartoum in December 2020. The Ethiopian delegation requested to discuss the border delimitation but the Sudanese side rejected the request pointing to the border agreements of 1902, 1903, and 1972 between the two countries.
