Tensions seem to be spreading over fertile farmland between Sudan and Ethiopia which is said to be fueling regional clashes and sparking concerns of an even wider conflict.
The said border dispute which is over a decade old has to do with Ethiopian farmers cultivating land which Sudan claims is theirs. But the fall out is now stoking more tensions over Ethiopia’s Blue Nile mega-dam, which Sudan and Egypt consider a threat to their water supply.
There has also been a fallout from unrest in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, with tens of thousands of refugees having fled into Sudan.
The agricultural area, Al-Fashaqa which covers some 12,000 square kilometres, is sandwiched between two rivers, where Ethiopia’s northern Amhara and Tigray regions meet Sudan’s eastern Gedaref state.
According to an expert on the region Alex de Waal, a professor at Tufts University in the US, the international boundary runs east of Al-Fashaqa, meaning the land belongs to Sudan, according to colonial-era treaties from 1902 and 1907.
However, over the years, thousands of Ethiopian farmers have entered the region and settled in the area to cultivate land during the rainy season and paying taxes to Ethiopian authorities.