Eritrea says Sudan plotting to kill Isayas
NAIROBI, Oct 19 (Reuters) – Eritrea has accused Sudan of trying to assassinate President Isayas Afewerki and destabilise the tiny Horn of Africa state in the latest round in a long-running war of words between the two neighbours.
“The Khartoum regime continues to step up its attempts to disrupt peace and stability in Eritrea and the region by pursuing its practice of governmental terrorism and assassination attempts over the president,” Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed said in an Web site statement seen on Tuesday.
Ahmed gave no details of the plots, which Sudan immediately denied, but the accusation is likely to further sour already poor relations between the two countries.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, when asked if the government denied the accusation, said: “Of course. It’s baseless. We think that anything that should happen to the Eritrean regime should be the responsibility of the Eritrean people.”
“We hope that it’s not going to be an excuse for an aggression that’s going to take place against Sudan,” he added.
Sudan’s security chief Salah Gosh on Monday accused Eritrea of backing Darfur rebels and of seeking to topple the Khartoum government in favour of the National Democratic Alliance, an opposition umbrella group based in the Eritrean capital Asmara.
The Darfur rebels have opened offices in Eritrea, and Sudan says they also have training camps there.
Eritrea, in turn, says Khartoum supports Islamic groups behind bomb attacks in the west of the country and is in alliance with Ethiopia, with whom Asmara fought a two-year war in a still-simmering border dispute.
In September, Eritrea accused Sudan of encouraging terrorism after failing to hand over 75 Eritreans who hijacked a Libyan plane and forced it to land in Khartoum, where they sought political asylum.
Isayas has clashed with all of Eritrea’s neighbours since leading the country to independence from Ethiopia in 1991. Along with Sudan, Ethiopia and Yemen have also accused him of trying to topple their governments.
(Additional reporting by Opheera McDoom in Khartoum)