The Sudan summoned the Ethiopian ambassador to inform him of its protest against his statement, in which he stated that his country’s army shot down a plane that had entered Ethiopian airspace through Sudanese airspace.
The Ethiopian army said in a statement that a plane carrying weapons intended for rebels was shot down in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia.
At a press conference in Khartoum on Monday in which he discussed military developments in the north of his country, Ethiopian Ambassador Yebeltal Emeru Alemu confirmed the validity of this statement and said that “there is no doubt that the news in connection with the flight of an aircraft in the airspace Sudan, his crossing of Ethiopian airspace and his downing by the Ethiopian army. This is true news.”
Against this backdrop, Sudan’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said it had summoned the Ethiopian ambassador to Sudan to brief him on Khartoum’s “refutation” of his statement.
In response to these statements and in a statement, the ministry said that Director General of African Affairs Ambassador Fadl Abdullah Fadl “delivered to the Ethiopian ambassador the ministry’s condemnation of the statements he made to the media in which he mentioned that Ethiopian forces shot down a plane carrying weapons to the forces Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which violated Ethiopian airspace through Sudan.” five-month truce, fighting resumed on 24 August between the Ethiopian army and the Tigray rebels, with both sides trading accusations of fomenting a confrontation.