Ethiopia, Sudan ready for talk on border clashes — South Sudan

JUBA — Sudan and neighbouring Ethiopia have agreed to settle their disputes through mediation, a South Sudanese official disclosed.

South Sudan’s presidential adviser on security affairs, Tut Gatluak Manime said President Salva Kiir has assured the leadership of the two countries about his readiness to help them resolve their disputes through dialogue.

Kiir, he told Sudan Tribune on Monday, tasked the council of ministers to deliberate on the matter and come up with resolutions to resolve the crisis.

“General Salva Kiir Mayardit is not relenting in exerting efforts to ensure the dispute between the Republic of Sudan and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is resolved through dialogue. He had sent the leaders and used his office to speak to the leaders in the two countries on several occasions. He spoke to his brother in Sudan Gen Abdel Fattah Al-Barman and his brother Dr. Abiy Ahmed, the Prime minister of Ethiopia on the need for two leaders to sit and talk,” said the presidential aide in an interview.

Manime said both leaders opted for dialogue to resolve their differences.

He, however, stressed that the mode of negotiation is yet to be agreed on.

“We do not have any information about how they will conduct the negotiation. All is that is important is for them to arrest the dispute so that they resume economic activities along the common border and to facilitate movement of people, goods, and services”, explained Manime. Last week, South Sudan’s First Vice President Riek Machar said government sent a delegation to mediate the border row between Sudan and Ethiopia.

He disclosed this during the fifth day of the public awareness and consultation on water management in South Sudan gathering national and foreign experts at the council of minister in Juba on Thursday.

“Lately, the last council of ministers made a resolution in order to end the Sudanese-Ethiopians conflict. We decided to send a delegation to them so that they don’t quarrel,” said Machar.

The main objective for this initiative, he observed, was that South Sudan has good relations with neighbouring countries and seeks to avoid a civil war.

“We have no issue with Egyptians and like we have no issue with the Ethiopians. If they are in conflict, we would help them resolve their issues peacefully because. We have lived wars, and we value the relations between these two countries with us. Whether with the Ethiopians or with the Sudanese,” stressed Machar.

In recent years, tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia have run high in because of a spillover of the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and Ethiopia’s construction of a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile.

According to humanitarian agencies, tens of thousands of refugees have fled into eastern Sudan and there have been military skirmishes in an area of contested farmland along the border between Sudan and Ethiopia.