After Turkey, Iran and Israel, is it Ethiopia's turn to penetrate the Arab world?

Border skirmishes between Sudan and Ethiopia are nothing new; they date back decades and are frequent.

The causes are both countries’ failure to “demarcate” their borders, tribal and demographic interventions, and the seasonal displacement of residents in those areas due to alternate seasons of heavy rain and drought. Both sides have always tried to prevent these skirmishes or political crises from developing and threatening their bilateral relations, and they are always diverting their attention to a local problem here or a tribal clash there.

This time, though, the situation appears to be different; a border issue is developing rapidly into a diplomatic crisis between Khartoum and Addis Ababa, which has seen Ethiopia’s Ambassador in Sudan being summoned in protest at the Ethiopian army’s crossing of the Sudanese border and attacks on army bases west of the Atbara River in the border state of Al-Qadarif. This is not a clash between irregular groups such as the popular defence forces backed by the Sudanese government and the Shifta militia backed by the Ethiopian army; it is fighting between the regular armies of neighboring states. read more...

Source: www.middleeastmonitor.com