Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen accuse Eritrea of fomenting regional trouble

ADDIS ABABA, Dec 29 (AFP) — The leaders of Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen on Monday lambasted their neighbour Eritrea, terming it a destabilising force in the Horn of Africa region.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir and his Yemeni counterpart Ali Abdallah Saleh took turns to criticise Eritrea during a break in the course of their tripartite summit.

“It is not a secret Eritrea’s desire is to destabilise Sudan by arming and training rebels and sending them into Sudan,” Beshir told a news conference.

He said Eritrea was “was providing provisions, armaments and was taking care of wounded rebel soldiers” in the Darfur region of Sudan where rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) are fighting against government troops.

“It is a fact that Eritrea has problems with all its neighbours,” Meles said on the sidelines of the summit convened to discuss and sign a cooperation treaty between the three states.

Responding to a question, Meles said Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen had not formed an alliance against Eritrea.

“To form a coalition against a tiny state is unthinkable. All the members of the forum are capable of facing Eritrea individually,” Meles added.

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea are tense because of disagreements over the delineation of their shared frontier in the wake of a border war they fought between 1998 and 2000.

“Eritrea has problems with neighbouring countries, and the only way out is for it to have dialogue and not confrontation,” Saleh said.

In Khartoum, newspapers quoted national security chief Major General Salah Abdallah accusing Eritrea, Sudan’s main rebel movement and the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) of backing rebels in Darfur.

Abdallah told newspaper editors on Sunday that Asmara had moved arms through airports held by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in south Sudan to an airport held by the Darfur rebels in West Darfur State.