Ethiopia has escalated its dispute with Sudan’s Port Sudan junta after Ethiopian intelligence chief Redwan Hussein visited the Red Sea city to deliver a formal protest, according to multiple sources cited by al-Rakoba and Ethiopia’s The Reporters.
Officials said Redwan met Sudan’s Sovereignty Council chairman and the head of General Intelligence to object to what Addis Ababa describes as General al-Burhan’s forces’ (SAF) logistical support for Tigray fighters in exchange for their deployment along eastern Sudan near the Ethiopian border. Ethiopia also protested alleged Sudan–Eritrea military coordination and the involvement of Tigrayan forces in Sudan’s internal war, calling it a direct threat to Ethiopian national security.
Ethiopia’s concerns center on the risk that rearmed, regrouped Tigray combatants stationed close to the frontier could pivot back into Ethiopia. The talks also addressed reports that Sudan is granting nationality to Tigrayans—an initiative Ethiopia “strongly rejects,” viewing it as an effort to entrench their military and political presence.
Sudanese commentator Ammar Saeed argued that Port Sudan’s training and arming of Tigray fighters to counter the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) marks a dangerous shift in regional alignments—one Addis Ababa inevitably reads as a security threat, given the still-fragile ties between Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray despite past peace deals. Even so, Ethiopia has broadly kept its rhetoric measured, avoiding overt accusations or backing hostile acts against Port Sudan to prevent spillover that could unsettle its internal and regional balance.
A particularly sensitive flashpoint is Ethiopia’s role at the AU Peace and Security Council. Diplomatic sources say Addis Ababa was instrumental in blocking an attempt to lift Sudan’s suspension from the African Union, on the grounds that the Port Sudan is a military junta, non-inclusive, and lacks legitimacy to deliver a political end to the war. Saeed says that perceived Ethiopian “veto” likely angered Port Sudan, prompting a harder line toward Addis Ababa.
The dispute overlays older frictions: since the Tigray war (2020), SAF expanded their footprint in the fertile, disputed al-Fashaga triangle between Sudan’s Gedaref State and Ethiopia’s Tigray/Amhara regions. Khartoum cites the 1902 treaty to claim the area; Ethiopia says Ethiopian farmers have long tilled the land, with Khartoum accused of abetting insurgents.
Previous reports and leaks have alleged SAF support for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). A June 2025 report by the Congolese outlet “Beto” said Sudan’s Sovereignty Council under Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan adopted a controversial policy granting Sudanese citizenship and permanent residency to TPLF members to secure their continued participation against the RSF. Additional accounts say Tigrayan fighters have been deployed to fronts in Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan to bolster fatigued Sudanese units.
