Ethiopia and Sudan accuse each other of attacks

Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Sudan's de facto leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. [AFP]

Ethiopia and Sudan traded accusations on Tuesday that each had violated the other's territory and were supporting insurgent forces.

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 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.

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.

Drone attacks

Awad said UAE-made drones, launched from Ethiopia's Bahir Dar airport in its northeastern Amhara region, had struck army locations around Sudan on March 1 and 17, and again on Monday, when Khartoum airport was targeted.

"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," he said.

He added that his forces were "at the highest level of readiness".

Ethiopia's foreign ministry said these were "baseless accusations".

In March, the Sudanese military alleged drone attacks were launched "from inside Ethiopian territory", the first public allegation 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 by both Sudan's army and the RSF have intensified across the country in recent months.

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

In recent months, however, the capital has seen relative calm and some displaced residents have returned despite the lack of electricity or basic services in much of the city.

Much of the country remains plagued by fighting, however.

The violence has spread to southeastern Blue Nile state, which borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, raising the spectre of a prolonged and fragmented conflict.