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The Sudanese military stated that it repelled an Ethiopian army’s attempt to invade the border area between the two countries.
On Sunday, a military statement stated that Ethiopian troops were forced to retreat from the Umm Barakit area, but did not provide further details.
General Abdul Fatah Burhan, the head of the Sudanese military, told reporters that the incident occurred on Saturday. He said this shows how the military protected the country after the attempted coup in Khartoum last week.
Colonel Getnet Adane, an Ethiopian military spokesman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since the conflict erupted in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia last year, tensions along the border between Sudan and Ethiopia have escalated. The conflict sent tens of thousands of refugees to eastern Sudan.
The tension is concentrated in the fertile farmland area called al-Fashqa, where the border is disputed.
‘Close the port and block the road’
At the same time, protesters in eastern Sudan closed a pipeline that carried imported crude oil to the capital Khartoum.
Protesters from the Beja tribe in eastern Sudan have been closing ports and blocking roads to protest what they call the terrible political and economic conditions in the region.
Al Jazeera reporter Hiba Morgan from Khartoum said that the dissatisfaction of the Beja tribe, one of the main tribes in eastern Sudan, can be traced back to October 2020, when opposition and armed groups signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government.
Morgan said that the Beja tribe stated that the deal was “not representative and did not address the root causes of marginalization and underdevelopment in the eastern region”.
She added: “They say they want to make sure that the government understands the economic crisis, underdevelopment and what it means to have their voice heard.”
According to Morgan, the purpose of the demonstrators was to hold meetings with various tribes and races in the eastern region to propose alternatives to the peace agreement.
“Boiling” anger
The ministry has called on protesters to end the work stoppage within a week to prevent the country from suffering huge economic and technical losses.
Sudan’s Oil and Energy Minister Gadian Ali Obaid said in an interview: “The authorities are trying to solve the problem of closing the port.”
On Saturday, he said there are enough reserves to meet the country’s 10-day needs.
According to the ministry, the Khartoum refinery, which produces fuel for domestic consumption, is still operating normally.
The ministry said that another pipeline used to export crude oil from neighboring South Sudan is still in operation, but because protesters have been preventing ships from loading oil, it is easily frozen and damaged.
The ministry stated that if exports continue to be blocked, the oil depot at the Bashayel oil terminal in eastern Sudan will be filled up in 10 days. This, in turn, will lead to the suspension of production in South Sudan’s oil fields.
Walid Madibo, founder and chairman of the Sudan Policy Forum, said the protesters’ dissatisfaction was “justified”.
“This is not just the concern of the Beja tribe… I think this is the request of the people in the eastern part of the country,” Madibo told Al Jazeera.
“The anger has been brewing for decades, and it has reached the point where they can no longer bear it,” he said. He added that after signing the Juba agreement with Darfur groups, anger “especially” escalated-the agreement excluded others in the eastern and northern regions of the country.
“As a result, we see anger accumulating and reaching the current level, and I think it is destroying the entire country,” Madibo said.
On Friday, an adviser to Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok accused unidentified forces of using these protests to disrupt the economy and put pressure on the transitional government, which was in power after Omar al-Bashir stepped down in 2019 .
Assistant Arthur Alman said in a statement that stopping oil exports “will cause significant economic losses.” He estimated the potential loss of a long-term shutdown of more than $1 billion.
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