Sudan has closed parts of its border with Ethiopia with the government wary of violence spilling over.
State news agency SUNA reported that the decision was made due to the ongoing heavy fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military invasion.
SUNA also reported that the local government in Sudan’s eastern al-Qadarif state began closing its border with the Ethiopian regions of Tigray and Amhara on Thursday evening until further notice.
The government also warned people living at the border to be wary of the repercussions of tensions in neighboring Ethiopia, it added.
Sudanese areas neighboring the two Ethiopian regions currently have an active harvest season and any security tensions could seriously harm farmers and their corps, the agency said.
Ethiopia and Sudan have had a rocky relationship in the past, as the two sides clashed over border disputes, shares of the Nile waters and support for Islamist militancy in the region.
Both countries trade with each other enormously, with Ethiopia gaining 80% of its oil from Sudan, and Sudan acquiring coffee, maize and other agricultural products from its eastern neighbor.
