Long-running border disputes between Ethiopia and Sudan are intersecting with other internal conflicts, bringing greater militarization and economic instability.
Violent conflict along the Ethiopia-Sudan border is profoundly destabilizing communities on both sides, disrupting trade in key resources and displacing thousands of people from productive farmlands. Trade routes are becoming militarized and commodities are being used to fuel other conflicts - notably the war that is devastating other parts of Sudan.
Borderland disputes and conflict are not new to the two Horn of Africa countries. Ethiopia and Sudan have long competed for the control of land and agricultural production in these fertile areas. Cycles of cross-border violence have been shaped by each country's internal political dynamics and the prevailing bilateral relations - as have intermittent periods of cooperation.
Background to border conflict: historical roots and recent strife
The border between Ethiopia and Sudan has been contested for more than a century. The roots of the dispute lie in the two countries' disagreement over the border delineation process - particularly regarding the fertile Al Fashaga territory - that was part of the 1902 Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty. Known as the Gwynn Line (named after the British officer who had led the attempt to demarcate it), this border delineation continues to be rejected by Ethiopia, despite subsequent efforts to resolve it.
The dispute has shaped relations between both countries ever since and now intersects with other sources of strife in the area. Since late 2020, the 740-kilometre border has been marked by a series of overlapping internal and cross-border conflicts, bringing economic and social instability to both Ethiopian and Sudanese communities.
A major contributor was the destructive two-year civil war beginning in November 2020 in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region.
This led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the displacement of more than 2 million others. The war spread to the neighbouring Ethiopian regions of Afar and Amhara - the latter shares a border with Sudan, as did the Tigray region before the conflict.
In November 2022, the two main belligerents - Ethiopia's federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - formally ended the war by signing the Pretoria Agreement in South Africa. Yet that agreement has so far failed to resolve the status of contested areas, notably the Western Tigray/Welkait zone, which lies on the border with Sudan. This area was under the authority of the Tigray region before the war but was taken over by Amhara forces early on in the conflict.
Shortly after the outbreak of war in Tigray, hostilities began in the historically disputed border territory of Al Fashaga, which is claimed by both Ethiopia and Sudan. A predominantly agricultural heartland, Al Fashaga is wedged between Sudan's Gedaref state and the Ethiopian regions of Tigray and Amhara.
With the Ethiopian forces preoccupied with their internal conflict in Tigray, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) began an incursion into Al Fashaga in late 2020. Thousands of Ethiopian farmers who had settled there (predominantly from Amhara) were forcibly displaced. Relations between the two national governments deteriorated rapidly as a result, and the border between the countries was closed.
High-value white sesame is produced largely in the borderland area between Sudan and Ethiopia.
The SAF have since sought to consolidate control over Al Fashaga's fertile lands and to reroute the valuable trade of sesame and other crops away from Ethiopian markets.
Some local Sudanese investors have had lands removed due to the invasion, which has also disrupted broader working relations between Ethiopian and Sudanese investors in Al Fashaga and across the borders.
In such a competitive context, important economic resources like land and cash crops have become contested. High-value white sesame is produced largely in the borderland area between Sudan and Ethiopia, and is economically important to both countries. These resources are part of economic processes that connect Ethiopia and Sudan to the broader region, including the Arabian Gulf and beyond.
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They are also embedded in local and transnational conflict dynamics, as different groups - national armed forces, rebel groups, political and economic elites - seek to use strategic commodities to fuel different causes.
Economic resources in Al Fashaga have become vital to sustaining the war economy in Sudan's own devastating civil conflict, which began in April 2023 and has prompted the SAF to reinforce their presence in the east of the country. Crops such as sesame are part of supply chains that are providing the SAF with crucial financial flows to sustain their war efforts.
More checkpoints, less economic activity
