KHARTOUM, Sept. 5 (Reuters) – Sudanese authorities have confiscated a load of 72 boxes of weapons that arrived by air from Ethiopia and are suspected of being used in “crimes against the state.” reported Sudanese state news agency SUNA. Sunday.
The shipment is being investigated by a committee tasked with dismantling the government of former President Omar al-Bashir, which was overthrown in April 2019 after a popular uprising.
The weapons had arrived in Ethiopia from Moscow in May 2019, the committee found.
The intended recipient of the weapons was unclear, but the committee did not rule out that they were intended for former loyalists of the Bashir government whom the Sudanese authorities accuse of trying to undermine the country’s fragile transition to democracy, according to SUNA.
The boxes included weapons and night-vision goggles and arrived on a commercial flight on Saturday night, SUNA reported, without giving further details.
The committee noted “suspicions that these weapons were intended to be used in crimes against the state, impeding the democratic transition and preventing the transition to civil status,” SUNA reported.
Dina Mufti, a spokeswoman for the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
Tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia have risen due to the overflow of the conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, and the construction of a giant hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. Read more
The Tigray conflict has sent tens of thousands of refugees to eastern Sudan and caused military skirmishes in an area of disputed farmland along the border between the two countries.
Reports by Khalid Abdelaziz; Written by Aidan Lewis; Edited by Peter Cooney
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