By Tesfa-Alem Tekle, NAIROBI
Kenya
Ethiopia and Sudan reach a
fresh agreement to peacefully resolve all outstanding disputes between the two
neighbours.
The renewed agreement was
reached after Ethiopia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Demeke Mekonnen, and the
Vice President of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council (TSC) of Sudan,
Lt-Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo met in Khartoum.
The two officials held a
bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Intergovernmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) ministerial council meeting held in Sudan, the current chair
of the regional bloc.
During the discussion, the two
sides agreed to peacefully resolve a border dispute which engaged the two
neighbours in armed clashes in recent years.
A long-running dispute over a
contested fertile border region, al-Fashaqa, has fueled a surge in tensions
between the two countries in recent years, alongside a diplomatic spat over
Ethiopia’s construction of the multibillion-dollar mega-dam project.
Tension over al-Fashaqa, which
lies within Sudan’s international boundaries but has been settled by Ethiopian
farmers for decades, escalated in December 2020, after Sudan deployed its army
and took control of the area.
The two Eastern African
nations share a 1,600-kilometer-long common boundary that has never been
delimited, causing intermittent confrontations.
In addition, the two sides
have agreed to solve the long-existing disputes over Ethiopia’s controversial
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) which is being built on the Nile River,
some 30 kilometres away from the Sudanese border.
Sudan and Egypt fear that the
massive dam which would be Africa’s largest could eventually diminish their
water shares from the Nile River.
Mekonnen and Dagalo have
further discussed bilateral relations and regional issues of mutual concern.
Sudan has also expressed
readiness to support the implementation of the peace agreement signed between
the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The 48th Ordinary Session of
the IGAD, an eight-member regional bloc, was concluded on Wednesday in the
Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
The Council of Ministers
deliberated at length and endorsed the report presented by Workneh Gebeyehu,
Executive Secretary of IGAD.
The Council appreciated the
IGAD Secretariat for navigating the region and the organization when it was
traversing under daunting peace and security and humanitarian situations.
The IGAD Council of Ministers
also commended the bloc’s contributions to the Peace Agreement for the
Cessation of Hostility in North Ethiopia.
The Ministers also put their
signatures on two protocols on free movement of people and transhumance.
At its conclusion, the IGAD
Ministerial Council issued a communiqué that called for institutional reform to
make sure IGAD stands at the forefront in the effort of member countries to
achieve peace and development in the region.
Regarding peace and security,
among others, the Communiqué, welcomed the Permanent Cessation of Hostilities
Agreement signed between the Government of Ethiopia and TPLF in Pretoria, South
Africa, on 2nd November 2022 and the subsequent Declaration of Senior
Commanders on Modalities for the Implementation of the Agreement signed in
Nairobi, Kenya, on 12th November 2022.
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