Ethiopia Expels Sudanese Diplomats as Two Wars Edge Toward One Border
ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia ordered six Sudanese diplomats out of the country on Wednesday, turning months of proxy-war accusations into a direct rupture between two governments already fighting enemies on opposite sides of a volatile border.
The six staff members at Sudan’s consulate in Assosa, a western Ethiopian city near Sudan, received 48 hours to leave, a senior Ethiopian official told Reuters. The official gave no public reason for the expulsion. Ethiopia’s prime minister’s office did not immediately answer the news agency’s request for comment.
The silence does not hide the stakes. Sudan’s government has accused Ethiopia of allowing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to use Ethiopian territory for drone attacks on Sudanese infrastructure. Addis Ababa denies supporting the RSF. Ethiopia, in turn, says Sudan, Egypt and Eritrea backed Tigrayan forces in a September offensive against federal troops. All three governments deny that allegation.
Those disputes now touch two active wars. Sudan’s conflict has displaced more than 14 million people since April 2023, according to United Nations figures cited by Reuters. Ethiopia is again confronting armed forces in its northern Tigray region after a devastating earlier war and a fragile peace.
Assosa moves to the center of the crisis
Assosa is no incidental location. The city sits near the Sudanese frontier and hosts the consulate whose staff Ethiopia has now expelled. Sudanese officials also allege that a base in the area has supplied the RSF and served as a launch point for drones. Ethiopia rejects the broader charge that it backs the paramilitary force.
Photo source: Wikimedia Commons — emiliano tomei, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Sudan took the dispute to the United Nations Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council on Sunday. Its complaint accused Ethiopia of permitting RSF drone operations against civilian infrastructure. The Sudan News Agency separately reported that Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Muawiya Osman Khalid had briefed diplomats on alleged attacks against power facilities, water stations, schools, hospitals and fuel stations.
Those are Sudanese government claims, not independently established facts. The distinction matters in a war saturated with propaganda and outside intervention.
Independent investigators have confirmed the broader pattern, however. A September report from the UN Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan documented transnational support networks supplying foreign personnel, weapons, training and logistics to the RSF. It also found reasonable grounds to believe that the Sudanese Armed Forces used foreign-supplied drones in operations that harmed civilians and civilian sites. The evidence shows a regionalized war, even when responsibility for a specific strike remains disputed.
Diplomacy narrows as the danger widens
The expulsions raise the cost of de-escalation. Consulates exist partly to keep communication open when political relations deteriorate. Removing six diplomats from a border city weakens exactly the channel both sides need if a drone strike, troop movement or accusation triggers retaliation.
Sudan says it wants to avoid that outcome.
“The Sudanese government remains committed to its right to defend its territory. Nevertheless, it is making every possible effort to avoid an open war with Ethiopia,” Amjad Farid, an adviser to Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, told Reuters.
That pledge now faces a hard test. Sudan’s military authorities want to deter attacks and expose what they describe as Ethiopian support for the RSF. Ethiopia has its own security claims, including accusations that neighboring governments are helping Tigrayan forces. Each government presents itself as responding to interference while accusing the other of turning local enemies into regional proxies.
The African Union has condemned deadly drone attacks in Sudan and warned against actions that intensify the conflict. But condemnation alone cannot separate the wars. The union, the United Nations and neighboring states need an investigation capable of tracing launch sites, supply routes and command chains without adopting either government’s allegations as fact.
For now, Ethiopia has chosen expulsion over explanation. Sudan has paired appeals for diplomacy with warnings about its right to respond. If both sides keep tightening that circle, the next confrontation may not remain a war by proxy. It could become a direct fight across one of the Horn of Africa’s most dangerous borders.
Sources
Reuters — Ethiopia expels Sudanese diplomats after fresh allegations of support for the RSF.
Sudan News Agency — Sudan’s Foreign Ministry briefing and allegations.
UN Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan — findings on external support networks and drone-enabled civilian harm.
African Union — condemnation of deadly drone attacks in Sudan and Abyei.
Hero photograph — Shealah Craighead / White House, public domain.
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