Ethiopia denies land giveaways to Sudan
Article
Comments (0)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
facebook
myspace
twitter
buzzyahoo
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
June 21, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopian deputy prime minister Demeke
Mekonen has dismissed accusations alleging that the horn of Africa’s
nation has secretly given away farm lands to neighbouring Sudan along
its border with Amhara regional state.
JPEG - 45.1 kb
A road leading to Ethiopia-Sudan border (Photo Jamminglobal.com)
Some exiled opposition outlets have frequently released reports
accusing Ethiopia’s Amhara regional state bordering Sudan of giving
away Ethiopian lands as large as 1,600 Sq Km to Sudan.
Mekonen said those reports are “baseless” and a deliberate smear
campaigns by some irresponsible opposition elements.
While responding to questions during a forum with the Ethiopian
Diaspora, the deputy premier underscored there was no “inches" of land
offered to Sudan by the Amhara regional state.
“In the first place regional states are not authorized to handle
border issues," he said.
He added “It is only the Federal Government of Ethiopia that has the
authority to negotiate and decide on boarder issues. Even in that
sense there is no piece of land given to Sudan”.
The Ethiopian official added that “it is so easy that any concerned
group or individual can go to the place and check the reality on the
ground”.
The issue of border re-demarcation has long been a source of conflict
between Ethiopia and Sudan, but the two countries worked during the
past years to fix it and established joint projects for the benefit of
the residents of the border areas from both sides.
A number of opposition parties accuse the ruling EPRDF-led Ethiopian
government of offering large territories of the country to Sudan in
order to ease the tension which started in 2001 when the two
neighbours tried to re-demarcate their boundary.
However, the Ethiopian government says it only gave back a lands
occupied in 1996 which belongs to Sudanese farmers adding no single
individual from both sides was displaced at the borders as a result.
Ethiopian officials further argue that Ethiopia and Sudan were only
implementing prior agreements signed on border demarcation and there
are no land given away to Sudan as had been reported by some Medias.
The deputy prime minister further said that border issues with Sudan
could be raised but the government of Ethiopia has the right and duty
to keep and maintain the sovereignty of the nation.
He added that the major objectives of such accusations are to create a
gap among top leadership; thereby, attempt to jeopardize nation’s
development efforts.
(ST)
--
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob
View this message at
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"South Sudan Info - The Kob" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob.
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14oq035njYjDWx6QpByxJ4uSNRb7Jv%2B%3DxeYHn4KcJeEyXAw%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
