Ethiopia has ordered six Sudanese diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours and closed Sudan’s consulate in the border town of Asosa, according to media reports. The reports on Tuesday came as tensions between the countries continue to rise, with Sudan accusing Ethiopia of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), while Ethiopia accuses Sudan of backing rebels in its northern Tigray region The allegations and counter-allegations, which both sides deny, have raised fears that the two wars could bleed into each other, spawning a broader conflict in the Horn of Africa. The news agency, citing a senior Ethiopian official, reported on Tuesday that Ethiopia ordered six staff members of the Sudanese consulate in the border town of Assosa to leave within 48 hours.
It said the official asked not to be named to discuss a sensitive diplomatic matter. The news agency also reported the action, citing an Ethiopian intelligence official. It also said a Sudanese official had corroborated the expulsions, adding that Ethiopian authorities had summoned Sudan’s ambassador on Sunday to announce the consulate’s closure.
He said the staff departed on Tuesday evening and spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to escalate the diplomatic dispute. The agency said neither official had provided a specific reason for the expulsions. The expulsions came after Sudan lodged a complaint against Ethiopia with both the United Nations Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council on Sunday, accusing Ethiopia of allowing the RSF to use its territory to launch deadly drone attacks against civilian infrastructure in Sudan.
Nevertheless, it is making every possible effort to avoid an open war with Ethiopia,” said Amjad Farid, political and foreign affairs adviser for Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council. A direct military confrontation with Addis Ababa would severely strain an already exhausted Sudanese military apparatus, which is still involved in intense battles with the RSF in the southeast of the country. Addis Ababa denies it supports the RSF in Sudan’s civil war.
The fighting between Sudan’s military and the RSF erupted in 2023 and has since killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 14 million people. The civil war has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the United Nations. On Sunday, drone strikes on electricity substations in the northern Sudanese towns of Al-Dabbah and Abu Hamad knocked out power.
Sudan’s government and the rights group Emergency Lawyers blamed the RSF. The wider campaign has disrupted electricity and water supplies and threatened essential medical services. Ethiopia’s order on the Sudanese diplomats follow its decision to expel 10 Eritrean diplomats and close its embassy in Eritrea on October 1.
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