Eritrea accuses Sudan of backing Ethiopian Jews’ migration to Israel

By Sudanese opposition Democratic Unionist Party web site

KHARTOUM/ASMARA, Jan 20, 2004 — The Eritrean government has accused Sudan of helping Ethiopian authorities to move thousands of Falashas [black Jews of Ethiopia] to Israel.

The [Eritrean] government issued a protest memorandum to Khartoum, asking it to release Eritrean prisoners detained in Sudan and vacate buildings belonging to the [Eritrean] community in the Sudanese capital.

The officer in charge of north Africa and the Middle East affairs at the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Muhammad Umar Mahmud, said ” Khartoum has agreed with Addis Ababa to move 18,000 Falasha Jews from the town of Gondar in western Ethiopia to Tel Aviv.” He added his country “had evidence” to support these accusations.

At the same time, Umar said the Eritrean embassy “had submitted a protest memorandum to the Sudanese ministry of External Relations, in protest against the arrest of 15 Eritreans after police broke into buildings occupied by the Eritrean community in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.”

BBC Monitoring Middle East