Special defense: Eritrea, president Afewerki denies troops presence on the border with Sudan
Asmara, 15 Jan 16:00 - (Agenzia Nova) - Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki has denied the news of the presence of Eritrean and Egyptian troops on the border with Sudan, claiming that "it is a machination of the Sudanese and Ethiopian secret services for justify the deployment of their forces along the border ". In an interview given yesterday evening by the Eritrean state television station, President Afewerki said that "the one issued by the" Al Jazeera "station on the presence of Egyptian weapons and soldiers in Eritrea is a piece of news produced by Sudanese Ethiopians to justify the presence of joint forces of the two countries in Kassala, along the border with Eritrea, and is an attempt to escape their internal crises ". Afewerki also accused Turkey of "trying to expand its presence in the Horn of Africa region, particularly in Sudan and Somalia".
Meanwhile, the governments of Sudan and Ethiopia have sent reassuring messages to Egypt regarding the security of the borders and the Nile River, on the eve of the visit that Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn will carry out in Cairo starting today. Speaking yesterday in Khartoum during a joint conference, the Ethiopian counterpart Workneh Gebeyehu, Sudanese Foreign Minister, Ibrahim Ghandur, has downplayed the dispute over the Egyptian military presence on the border between Eritrea and Sudan, speaking not of "hostile maneuvers along the borders, but of dangers to the security of the region ". "We know that in that area there are Sudanese opposition forces", said Ghandur, quoted by the newspaper "Sudan tribune", after Khartoum's decision to mass troops along the border.
Last week the Sudanese Vice-President, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamed, denounced that the Khartoum authorities consider themselves under threat for "military activities in progress" along the eastern border of the country by Eritrea and Egypt. Hamed revealed to the Qatari "Al Jazeera" television station that he had discussed with his colleagues in the National Congress Party "the security measures taken in some provinces and in particular in Kassala, after information on recent Eritrean movements and Egyptians in the Saua area ". Khartoum sent thousands of soldiers to the border with Eritrea after the news of the arrival of Egyptian military aid arrived in the country of the Horn of Africa.
Egypt, for its part, categorically denied the news, calling it "unfounded". The skirmishes were triggered by the decision with which last January 5 the Sudanese government announced that it had recalled its ambassador to Egypt, Abdel Hamoud Abdel Halim, for consultations. The escalation of tensions between the two countries has been going on for several weeks due to the disputed border area of Hala'ib and reached its peak with the visit to Sudan by a Turkish delegation led by President Recep Taiyyp Erdogan, which took place from 24 December 26th. (Res) © Agenzia Nova - Restricted reproduction
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