Sudan says Eritrea lying about plot to assassinate president
KHARTOUM, Oct 19 (AFP) — Sudan accused Eritrea Tuesday of lying about an alleged plot to assassinate President Isaias Afeworki as the ongoing war of words between the two countries escalated.
The Eritrean accusation “is a prelude to a plan for launching an attack on the Sudan,” charged Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, reacting to an Eritrean report that Sudan was plotting to assassinate Afeworki.
Khartoum “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 against the president,” Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed said in a statement, without elaborating.
Ismail responded by saying that “the Eritrean regime got in the habit of unleashing such accusations although its real problem is with the Eritrean people and not with the Sudan.”
And Sudanese Information Minister, Al-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik, quoted by the al-Rai al-Aam daily, claimed the Eritrean report was “a lie” designed to distract Sudan.
It was also meant to divert attention from “the hideous role Eritrea plays in the region,” according to the information minister.
Other Sudanese officials also weighed in with their own accusations against Eritrea. The governor of the East Kassala state, General Farouq Mohammed Nur, repeated claims of an Eritrean troop build-up on the common border.
Strained relations between the neighbouring states worsened considerably in 2002, when Khartoum accused Asmara of supporting an offensive by Sudanese rebels on its territory. The states’ border has since been closed.
Sudanese opposition groups, some of them armed movements, occasionally hold meetings in Asmara.
Another cause of tension is Sudan’s good relationship with Ethiopia, which fought a border war with Eritrea between 1998 and 2000. The peace process between Eritrea and Ethiopia has stalled.
Recent months were peppered with further signs of bad blood.
On August 27, a Libyan plane carrying 73 Eritreans being forcibly repatriated was hijacked by some its passengers to Sudan, which granted most of them asylum and convicted 15 to five-year jail terms.
Khartoum refused requests to extradite the convicts unless Eritrea agreed to “hand over Sudanese rebels in Eritrean camps,” while Asmara accused Sudan of “encouraging terrorism.”
In July, Sudan not for the first time accused Eritrea of training two rebel groups which took up arms against Khartoum in the now-devastated western region of Darfur in February 2003.