BALANCING ACT

Why Ethiopia’s Abiy opts for neutrality in Sudan’s war of the generals

By Abel Tesfaye

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Posted on May 19, 2023 14:39

© Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (l) walks alongside Sudanese Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (C) at Khartoum Airport during a welcome ceremony on January 26, 2023. (Photo by – / AFP) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (l) walks alongside Sudanese Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (C) at Khartoum Airport during a welcome ceremony on January 26, 2023. (Photo by – / AFP)

Just five days after Sudan’s rival generals started their war on 15 April, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed dismissed what he called “false allegations” that Ethiopia had brought its forces into the Al-Fashaga border area with Sudan. Such claims, Abiy said, came from “parties seeking to achieve their selfish political goals.”

Al-Fashaga is a fertile region on the Sudan–Ethiopia border and has been contested by the two countries for decades, though a simmering dispute only occasionally boiled over. Abiy was responding to reports by Sudanese news outlets that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) had repulsed an Ethiopian attack around Al-Fashaga.

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