According to a statement by the Sudanese forces, on Saturday several soldiers were killed after an attack by militias and armed groups linked to the Ethiopian Defense Force in the border area known as Al-Fashaqa.

That claim is unfounded, government spokesman Legesse Tulu said explaining that the Federal Army and the militia destroyed “a large group of insurgents, bandits and terrorists who invaded Ethiopian territory from Sudan”.

He also assured that the TPLF has long trained recruits in the Sudanese part of the border and receives logistic and financial support from foreign organizations.

Tulu did not present any evidence of combats against invaders, nor did he reveal the identity of sponsors of the Front, whose leaders insist they are moving towards the country’s capital.

Such reports differ from recent official ones, which account for the dispersion of the Front’s forces and important victories of the Federal Army, commanded on the battlefield by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

For many years, Al-Fashaqa, a very fertile area, is cultivated by Ethiopian farmers, although Sudan has always claimed them as part of its territory.

mh/lcr/gas/raj