Sudan and Ethiopia expel each other's diplomats amid mutual accusations

Mutual expulsion of diplomats

Ethiopia this week ordered six Sudanese diplomats to leave the country. According to a senior Ethiopian official quoted by Reuters, they are staff of the Sudanese consulate in the border town of Asosa; they were given 48 hours to depart, and no reason for the decision was given. Sudan responded a day later: the authorities closed the Ethiopian consulate in the city of Gedaref in the country's south-east, online outlets linked to the military-aligned government report. How many people worked at the consulate is unknown.

Accusations surrounding two wars

The exchange of expulsions deepens the rift between two countries that accuse each other of supporting their adversaries. Sudan's armed government claims that Ethiopia is helping the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been fighting the Sudanese army since April 2023. Ethiopia, in turn, accuses Sudan, Egypt and Eritrea of supporting Tigrayan rebels, who launched an offensive against government troops in September. All three countries, as well as Ethiopia, deny these accusations. On Sunday, the Sudanese government said it had filed a complaint against Addis Ababa with the UN Security Council and the African Union's Peace and Security Council, accusing it of allowing the RSF to use Ethiopian territory to launch kamikaze drones at Sudan's civilian infrastructure. Both wars, as The National notes, raise fears that they could escalate into a broader conflict in the Horn of Africa. According to the UN, the civil war in Sudan has displaced more than 14 million people and has become one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Context: escalation involving Egypt and Eritrea

This is already the second exchange of diplomatic expulsions involving Ethiopia in a month. In October, Addis Ababa ordered senior Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Moharam Ahmed Soliman to leave the country within 48 hours without explanation; Cairo responded by expelling an adviser at the Ethiopian embassy. As The National writes, the incident marked a new escalation in already strained relations over the dam Ethiopia has built on the Nile, which Egypt believes will likely reduce its share of the river's water. Shortly before that, Ethiopia announced the closure of its embassy in Eritrea and declared ten Eritrean diplomats personae non gratae, after which Eritrea severed diplomatic relations with it — against the backdrop of overnight explosions heard in Addis Ababa that raised fears of a renewed conflict in northern Ethiopia. Eritrea, like Sudan, is a close ally of Egypt.

Show caption: Ethiopian refugees and their families rest at the Al Huda pr…