Eritrean president denies presence of Egyptian troops in his country
January 14, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki accused interested circles in Sudan and Ethiopia of attempting to create a conflict between Khartoum and Asmara, stressed that there were no Egyptian troops at the Sawa base, which borders the Sudanese border.
On Thursday, Sudan officially announced sending troops and equipment to the border with Eritrea and spoke about security threats after the alleged arrival of Egyptian troops to the Eritrean military base of Sawa, an area bordering the eastern province of Kassala in Sudan.
In an interview with Eritrean television on Sunday evening, Afwerki ridiculed Sudan’s allegations about the presence of Egyptian troops at the Sawa military base and slammed the Qatari Al-Jazeera TV channel which broadcast the news.
He further said that Asmara has information about an attempt to deploy Ethiopian troops on the Sudanese-Eritrean border to be financed by Sudan.
He added that Khartoum and Addis Ababa seek to push Eritrea to war pointing to the broadcast in the Sudanese media of footages of troops and weapons dispatched to Kassala state.
“The Ethiopian and Sudanese intelligence services are promoting false information. These accusations are an attempt to escape forward.”
“Some circles in Sudan and Ethiopia are trying to create a clash between Sudan and Eritrea,” he said.
In a joint press conference with his Ethiopian counterpart Sunday, the Sudanese foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour said his government does not accuse a specific country but speak about threats for its security on the eastern border.
“Some opposition forces are in those areas,” he said. “There are some people who are trying to harm the security of the country and we will explain this in detail in due course,” Ghandour stressed.
Speaking about the Turkish military presence in the Red Sea region, Afwerki said it “is not acceptable”.
“I am not sure about the Turkish military presence in (the Sudanese town of) Suakin, but the Turkish presence in Somalia is unacceptable and does not contribute to the stability of the region,” he said.
The head of the embattled east African country was recently in Egypt for talks with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following several reports about a rapprochement with Cairo which is in conflict with Khartoum and Addis Ababa over the Nile water.
(ST)