Sudan Threatens to Use Military Option to Regain Control over Border with Ethiopia

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok speaks during a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday (AFP)
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok speaks during a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday (AFP)
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Sudan Threatens to Use Military Option to Regain Control over Border with Ethiopia

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok speaks during a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday (AFP)
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok speaks during a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday (AFP)

Sudan's leaders of the transitional authority, implicitly threatened to resort to the military option if the Ethiopian forces did not withdraw from the remaining lands in al-Fashqa, east of the country.

The warning came during a celebration at al-Fashqa marking the 67th anniversary of the armed forces, attended by Chairman of the Transitional Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok.

During his speech, Burhan asserted that the government is trying to recover its lands through negotiation and peaceful means.

"We will seek diplomatic options for this, but we have other options," Burhan said, referring to the military option.

He pointed out that about six locations in the al-Fashqa area are not under the army's control, and "we want our neighboring country, Ethiopia, to listen to the sound of reason."

He added: "We chose to celebrate the armed forces' anniversary in Al-Fashqa to confirm that this land is Sudanese, and our forces will remain in it."

Burhan indicated that the army tried to recover the area in 2017, but the leaders of the ousted regime were hesitant and afraid of the international community.

He stressed that state decisions are made in consultation and agreement between the institutions of the transitional authority, the Sovereign Council, and the government.

The Prime Minister said Sudan had reached out to all sides as part of a push to end the conflict.

Hamdok stressed that all international conventions and treaties affirm Sudan's sovereignty over this land.

"We want our relationship to be good with Ethiopia, but we will not give up an inch of Sudan's land," he added.

He pointed out that the transitional government worked on Sudan's return to the international community, and these relations open the door wide for the advancement of the armed forces in training and arming.

"We want to transform the border between Sudan and Ethiopia into an area based on development and stability, but we are the rightful owners of this land, and it is in international covenants."



Gaza Rescuers Say Nine Children among Dead in Israel Strike on UN Building

A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
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Gaza Rescuers Say Nine Children among Dead in Israel Strike on UN Building

A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP

The Israeli army said it targeted Hamas militants in a strike on a UN building in Jabalia refugee camp Wednesday that Gaza's civil defense agency said killed 19 people, nine of them children.

The army said in a statement that it struck the militants "inside a command and control centre that was being used for coordinating terrorist activity", and separately confirmed to AFP the building housed a UN clinic.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were also dozens of people wounded in the strike which "targeted an UNRWA building housing a medical clinic".

The army said that "the compound was used by Hamas's Jabalia Battalion to plan terror attacks", and accused Hamas of "exploiting the civilian population as a human shield".

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the "massacre at the UNRWA clinic in Jabalia", calling for "serious international pressure" to halt Israel's widening offensive.

The Islamic Jihad militant group, a Hamas ally, called the bombing a "blatant war crime".

Israel has on several occasions conducted strikes on UNRWA buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for most of the past 18 months.

A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni school in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after UNRWA said six of its staff were among the 18 people reported killed.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter -- a charge the Palestinian militant group denies.

Israel resumed major airstrikes on the Palestinian territory on March 18, after talks on next steps in a six-week truce broke down.

It also conducted airstrikes on southern and central Gaza on Wednesday that the civil defense agency said killed at least 15 people, including children, in the city of Khan Yunis and Nuseirat refugee camp.

Since then, at least 1,042 people have been killed in Gaza, according to figures last updated by Gaza's health ministry on Tuesday.

In total, 50,399 people have been killed since the start of the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack, according to the ministry's figures, which the United Nations views as reliable.