Ethiopian militias have launched a series of cross-border attacks on Sudanese villages, disrupting the vital sowing season, local farmers reported Monday.
The raids occurred in the contested Al-Fashaga region, long claimed by both Sudan and Ethiopia, and now a flashpoint during Sudan’s deepening hunger emergency.
Villagers from Wad Kouli and Wad Aroud said armed men stormed their fields, fired automatic weapons, and stole livestock and tractors before retreating into Ethiopian territory. “They attacked us while we were working,” said a 29-year-old farmer from Wad Kouli, describing a terrifying ambush that left the village stripped of cattle.
A farmer from Wad Aroud said gunfire sent workers fleeing for safety, only to return and find their livestock looted and the attackers gone.
Sudan’s local resistance committee confirmed the assaults, stating three villages in Gedaref state suffered “repeated and dangerous violations” by Ethiopian forces. Though no casualties were reported, the attacks have crippled planting efforts during the short rainy season from July to September, farmers said.
“This is devastating for food security and livelihoods,” the resistance committee warned, echoing fears across a region teetering on the edge of famine. Sudan, mired in civil war since April 2023, now faces the world’s largest hunger crisis, with nearly 25 million people in urgent need of food.
Gedaref, a key agricultural state, hosts over a million severely food-insecure people and borders Ethiopia’s war-scarred Tigray region.
Al-Fashaga’s fertile land remains a source of friction, with seasonal incursions common and tensions rising each planting season. As war and hunger tighten their grip on Sudan, the latest raids threaten to push already strained communities past the breaking point.
