Sudanese farmers shot at as they harvest corn on disputed soil, say witnesses
Ethiopian militia fired at Sudanese farmers as they harvested corn grown by members of Ethiopia’s Amhara ethnic group in a border enclave inside Sudan, two residents told The National.
The incident on Tuesday was the latest clash in a long -running border dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia that flared up late last year when Sudanese forces moved to wrest back control of farmlands inside the country that had for decades been held by Amhara farmers backed by militias.
The residents did not know if anyone was shot as the Sudanese farmers fled, leaving behind dozens of bags full of corn they harvested.
The Ethiopians seized the harvested corn and took it over the border, said the residents.
News of the incident in Al Fashaqa area came after a Sudanese military leader, Gen Yasser Al Atta, told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television that his country was prepared to negotiate a settlement.
“We welcome the Ethiopian brothers into constructive negotiations to make things right and place border marks on our eastern border,” said Gen Al Atta.
Ethiopia has rejected previous calls by Sudan to negotiate, saying Sudanese troops must first pull out from areas they retook since December.
Sudan has rejected this condition and vowed to “liberate” other enclaves inside its border settled by Ethiopians. It says that the border was demarcated in a 1902 agreement reaffirmed in 1972.
Each side has accused the other of trespassing on its territory. Ethiopia made a thinly disguised claim that the Sudanese military was stoking the border dispute for the benefit of Egypt, its northern ally that is at sharp odds with Ethiopia.
Sudan responded by alleging that Eritrean forces joined Ethiopia’s border breech.
The countries are also in dispute over a hydroelectric dam Ethiopia is building on the Nile. Sudan fears flooding and the disruption of its own power-generating dams.
Egypt, like Sudan another downstream nation, fears that the dam would reduce its share of the river’s water, leading to the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.