Ajazeera
Sudan has denied claims by Ethiopia of occupying its territory, in the latest dispute over the contested al-Fashqa area.
Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mansour Boulad said on Wednesday the Sudanese army had redeployed its forces in the border area with Ethiopia, and did not go beyond the Sudanese territory.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Mubasher on Wednesday, Boulad said claims by Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti of Sudan occupying Ethiopian lands “are not true”.
“Our choice so far is that we must deal with the situation according to the mechanisms of good neighbourliness and cooperation between the two countries, but if Ethiopia does the opposite, we will have another position according to the circumstances,” he said.
The exact boundary of al-Fashqa – where the northwest of Ethiopia’s Amhara region meets Sudan’s breadbasket Gadarif state – is rarely delineated on the ground.
According to the colonial-era treaties of 1902 and 1907, the international boundary runs to the east.
This means that the land belongs to Sudan – but Ethiopians had settled in the area and were cultivating there and paying their taxes to Ethiopian authorities.
In 2008, the two governments settled on a compromise, which resulted in Ethiopia acknowledged the legal boundary, but Sudan allowing the Ethiopians to continue living there undisturbed.
