Sudan and Ethiopia Engage in Diplomatic Tit-for-Tat Amidst Escalating Regional Tensions

Ethiopia has ordered six Sudanese diplomats to depart the country this week, a move that deepens a growing rift between the two nations. This action stems from mutual accusations of supporting each other's rivals. Sudan's military-backed government alleges that Ethiopia is backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been engaged in conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023. Conversely, Ethiopia claims that Sudan, along with Egypt and Eritrea, is supporting rebels in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region. Both countries deny these allegations, raising concerns about the potential for the conflicts to expand and ignite a wider war across the Horn of Africa.

On Sunday, Sudan's SAF-aligned government announced it had filed a complaint with the UN Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council. The complaint accuses Addis Ababa of permitting the RSF to utilize Ethiopian territory for launching drone attacks against civilian infrastructure in Sudan. The recent expulsions targeted six staff members of the Sudanese consulate in the border town of Assosa, who were given 48 hours to leave. A senior Ethiopian official confirmed this to Reuters without specifying the reason.

Sudan retaliated the following day by closing the Ethiopian consulate in the southeastern city of Qadaref, according to news outlets associated with the military-aligned government. The number of staff at the Ethiopian consulate remains unknown. Addis Ababa continues to deny any support for the RSF in Sudan's civil war, a conflict that has displaced over 14 million people and created a severe humanitarian crisis since its inception in April 2023.

Ethiopia has also accused Sudan, Egypt, and Eritrea of backing Tigrayan rebels who initiated an offensive against government forces in September, claims that all three nations have denied. In a separate but related development last month, Egypt and Ethiopia engaged in their own diplomatic expulsions. This tit-for-tat exchange marked a significant escalation in their strained relations, primarily over Ethiopia's Nile dam project, which Egypt fears will diminish its water supply.

The diplomatic row was initiated by Ethiopia when its Foreign Ministry ordered a senior Egyptian diplomat, Ahmed Moharam Ahmed Soliman, to leave within 48 hours, providing no explicit reason. Egypt responded by expelling a senior member of Ethiopia's diplomatic mission in Cairo, also giving the diplomat two days to depart. The unnamed diplomat was identified as the embassy's counsellor. These expulsions occurred shortly after Ethiopia ordered the closure of its embassy in Eritrea, a close ally of both Egypt and Sudan, and declared 10 Eritrean diplomats persona non grata. This move prompted Eritrea to sever diplomatic ties with Ethiopia, following overnight explosions in Addis Ababa that fueled fears of the conflict in northern Ethiopia spreading.