Eritrean Isaiah meets Sudanese leaders Amid Ethiopian tensions News from Eritrea

The visit of Eritrean President Khartoum comes amid close ties between the Ethiopian government, a close ally, and Sudan.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki is in Khartoum to hold talks with Sudanese officials on a two-day visit amid tensions between Ethiopian governments, a close ally of the Eritrean leader.

Accompanied by Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and Presidential Adviser Yemane Ghebreab, Isaiah was received on Tuesday at the international airport in the Sudanese capital by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the sovereign council of the Sudanese government.

The two leaders then closed talks on cooperation and ways to strengthen ties between their countries, the council said in a statement.

The Eritrean Ministry of Information said in a separate statement that Isaiah and al-Burhan “agreed to implement the Cooperation Agreement reached between the two countries in the political, economic, social, security and military sectors.”

President Isaias Afwerki and his delegation were warmly welcomed on arrival at Khartoum International Airport by Sudanese General Counsel Abdel Fatah al Burhan, Foreign Minister Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi and other Sudanese officials and officials. pic.twitter.com/fY8osvvYrO

– Yemane G. Meskel (@hawelti) May 4, 2021

Isaiah also held talks with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdo, stressing the importance of regional integration in the African Horn and “agreeing to focus on specific and specific projects to establish a bilateral Eritrea-Sudan link within the regional framework.”

The visit came in February after Sudan accused “a third” of siding with Ethiopia the boundary issue of the decade With Sudan on the agricultural lands of the fertile al-Fashaga region. It is likely to mention Eritrea because it has deployed troops to the Tigray region of Ethiopia to fight alongside Ethiopian federal forces in the conflict there.

Following Sudan’s accusation, Eritrea sent its Foreign Minister to Sudan to assure Khartoum that Eritrea was not in the dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia. In late March, the United Nations reported that Eritrean forces were working on the so-called al-Fashaga triangle.

Decades of al-Fashaga’s decades-long escalation escalated in November after Sudan spread troops to territories it says were occupied by Ethiopian farmers and militias.

Sudan and Ethiopia have since held rounds of talks to try to resolve the conflict, most recently in December in Khartoum, but have made no progress.

Sudan has said its forces have recaptured most of its territory. But he called on Ethiopia to withdraw troops from at least two points within Sudan, according to an agreement that limited the borders between the two nations in the early 1900s.

Ethiopia, however, has accused Sudan of taking advantage of the Tigray conflict to enter Ethiopian territory and steal property, killing civilians and displacing thousands of people. The Tigray fighting has sent more than 70,000 Ethiopian refugees to Sudan.

Isaiah’s visit also faces increasing pressure from the international community Eritrean troops withdrew from Tigray.

Eritrean soldiers, long enemies of Tigray fugitive leaders, have been blamed for some of the worst human rights violations in the Tigray conflict, including civilian massacres and systematic rape.