Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
Simon Stefanos
Prefatory Summary: The Narrative According to the Ethiopian Reporter
In January 2021, the Ethiopian newspaper The Reporter published a lengthy article titled “Why Did Sudan Occupy the Ethiopian Border?” (ሱዳን የኢትዮጵያን ድንበር ለምን ያዘች?) https://ethiopianreporter.com/72516/
The piece framed Sudan’s reassertion of control in the al-Fashaga region as an act of aggression inspired by Egypt and encouraged by foreign powers.
That article is still prominently displayed at the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia | Institute of Foreign Affairs website, showing the symbiotic working relationship between the two.
According to the author — identified as a senior analyst at Ethiopia’s Institute for Strategic Affairs — Sudan’s actions were motivated by seven factors: an “un-demarcated border,” Egyptian pressure over the Nile and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Sudan’s internal political turmoil, supposed U.S. and Gulf support for Khartoum, Ethiopia’s temporary military weakness due to the Tigray conflict, and a lingering “sense of historic victory” dating back to the 19th-century Mahdist wars.
The article portrayed Ethiopia as a victim of opportunistic neighbors, unfairly targeted at a moment of domestic fragility. It proposed renewed bilateral dialogue and “informal diplomacy” by the Ethiopian diaspora to correct international misunderstanding. Nowhere did it acknowledge that the land in question lies west of the 1902 Anglo–Ethiopian boundary—a line accepted by both countries for nearly a century and still regarded as the international frontier.
This piece exemplifies a wider Ethiopian discourse: when neighboring states act within the limits of treaty boundaries, Ethiopian official media and policy circles often describe such actions as invasions. The contradiction between rhetoric and record provides the starting point for understanding Ethiopia’s territorial politics over the past three decades.
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Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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