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Ethiopia has expelled six staff members of Sudan’s consulate in Assosa, a city near the Sudanese border, and ordered the mission closed, Ethiopian and Sudanese officials told the Associated Press (AP). Reuters, citing a senior Ethiopian official, reported the same order. The agencies reported on Wednesday that the staff had left on Tuesday evening, after Sudan’s ambassador was summoned on Sunday and told of the closure. The closure ends Sudan’s consular presence in Assosa; the ambassador, who was told of it on Sunday, declined to comment.
An Ethiopian intelligence official told AP the six were given 48 hours to leave, and a Sudanese official corroborated the expulsions. Both spoke anonymously and neither gave a reason. AP noted that Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry had not publicly announced the measures, unlike last month’s expulsions. On 1 October Ethiopia expelled 10 Eritrean diplomats and closed its embassy in Eritrea, which responded by severing diplomatic ties; it also expelled an Egyptian diplomat last month.
The move comes amid a dispute over drones. Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said drones used by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against its electricity infrastructure were supplied by the United Arab Emirates and launched from Ethiopia, and filed complaints at the UN Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council. On Sunday, drone strikes knocked out power in the northern towns of Al-Dabbah and Abu Hamad, which Sudan’s government blamed on the RSF. Ethiopia and the UAE deny arming the RSF. Reuters reported that Ethiopia accuses Sudan, Egypt and Eritrea of backing Tigrayan rebels who launched an offensive against government forces in September; all three deny it. The reports attribute allegations and denials; none establishes where the drones were launched.
Sudan’s response has been restrained in tone. Amjad Farid, political and foreign-affairs adviser to Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, said Sudan “remains committed to its right to defend its territory” but is making “every possible effort to avoid an open war with Ethiopia”. Reuters noted that a direct confrontation would severely strain a Sudanese army already fighting the RSF in the south-east. The agencies did not report a confirmed Sudanese counter-measure.