Arms cache from Ethiopia seized at Khartoum airport

A shipment of 73 boxes of weapons and military equipment – allegedly intended for counterrevolutionaries loyal to the deposed Al Bashir regime – was seized by Sudanese customs authorities at Khartoum airport on Saturday night, after it arrived aboard a civilian flight from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

The Committee to Dismantle the June 30 1989 Regime and Recover Public Funds said in a statement on Sunday that it informed the relevant authorities that a shipment of weapons coming from Addis Ababa via Ethiopian lines was on its way to the country, and would land at Khartoum Airport on Saturday evening.

The shipment was immediately seized by the customs authorities, and an investigation will be carried out on behalf of the prosecution department of the committee.

In its statement, the committee said that the weapons arrived in Ethiopia from Russia, in May 2019. The Ethiopian authorities held them there for the past two years, however on Saturday, “Addis Ababa allowed them to be shipped to Khartoum on a civilian airliner without warning.”

The shipment consists of 72 boxes, containing weapons and night vision goggles. The committee suspects that the arms were bound for counterrevolutionary agents provocateurs loyal to the deposed Al Bashir dictatorship, “with the intention of using them in crimes against the state, impeding the democratic transition”.

Sources in the investigations indicated that the arrival of weapons may be linked to the state of impunity in the country, and did not rule out that they belong to the ‘Popular Security’, which was originally intending to use them against the rebels. However the investigation sources did not specify the beneficiary party nor its relationship with the former regime yet.

The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on the Ethiopian government to stop being hostile in dealing with Sudan.

In a press statement on Saturday, the Ministry condemned the allegations of the Ethiopian army entering an armed group across the Sudanese border to target an Ethiopian facility.

The ministry described the Ethiopian statements as misleading and baseless, and considered them to have a clear purpose aimed at political consumption.

The FA Ministry affirmed Sudan’s full commitment to the principles of good neighbourliness and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

The ministry said that the Ethiopian government has repeatedly inserted the name of Sudan whenever its internal situation worsens, calling for stopping the repetition of allegations that are not supported by reality or logic against Sudan in order to achieve the interests and purposes of specific personalities and groups.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Sudan controls its entire territory and its internationally recognized borders with neighbouring Ethiopia, and that Sudan will not allow its lands to be exploited by any party, and that it has no intention of invading or seizing the land of others.