Sudan Foreign Ministry has acknowledged that it will immediately recall its ambassador to Ethiopia for talks in the wake of the death of seven of its troops who were being held captive by Ethiopia’s military.
The ministry announced yesterday that it would also summon the Ethiopian envoy to Khartoum to vehemently denounce the murder.
Seven Sudanese soldiers and a civilian were purportedly abducted on Sudanese soil on June 22 and transferred to Ethiopia where they were executed, according to Khartoum, which accused Addis Ababa of killing them on Sunday.
In a previous statement, the Sudanese military also claimed that Ethiopian troops had exposed the bodies of those who had been executed to the public and pledged a suitable response.
Ethiopia’s foreign ministry claimed in a statement yesterday that the incident’s details had been misrepresented and that the deaths were the consequence of a clash between a local militia and Sudanese soldiers who, according to them, had staged an invasion into Ethiopian territory.
Due to a spillover of the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray area and Ethiopia’s construction of a massive hydropower project on the Blue Nile, tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia have risen significantly in recent years.
Military clashes have taken place in a contested farmland area near the border between Sudan and Ethiopia as tens of thousands of refugees have rushed into eastern Sudan.