Sudan on Monday said it would recall its ambassador to Addis Ababa, accusing the Ethiopian army of “executing” seven of its soldiers and a civilian taken prisoner and vowing to retaliate for the “cowardly act”.
“In an act that contravenes all conventions of war and international law, the Ethiopian army executed seven Sudanese soldiers and a citizen,” the Sudanese army accused on Sunday night.
These men had been “abducted on 22 June in Sudanese territory and then taken to Ethiopia”, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Monday.
The army warned that “this perfidious act will not pass” and Sudanese diplomacy said it would “immediately recall its ambassador to Ethiopia and summon (Monday) the Ethiopian ambassador to Khartoum to convey Sudan’s condemnation of this inhuman act.
Sudan also said it would file a complaint with the UN Security Council and regional organizations. Ethiopia did not immediately comment on the accusations.
According to a Sudanese military official, the soldiers were captured in a border area near Al-Fashaga, an area of fertile land in the eastern Sudanese state of Gedaref that is the subject of a border dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia.
Clashes, sometimes fatal, occur regularly in this area. They intensified in 2020 with the war between the Ethiopian federal government and the regional authorities of Tigray, a region neighbouring Sudan, which caused tens of thousands of Ethiopians to flee to eastern Sudan.
Although Ethiopian farmers have been settling in the El-Fashaga area for decades, Sudanese troops only deployed there after the outbreak of conflict in Tigray.