Ethiopia Gives 6 Sudanese Officials 48 Hours to Leave and Shuts Assosa Consulate, Reports Say

Economic Warfare & Trade Policy › Sanctions

Asosa Hidase Airport in Asosa (Assosa), Ethiopia (file photo). Photo: Asrade, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ethiopia has ordered six Sudanese diplomatic and consular officials to leave the country within 48 hours and ordered the closure of Sudan’s consulate in the western city of Assosa, local media reported Wednesday, citing diplomatic sources, according to Anadolu Agency. The officials served at the consulate in Assosa, the administrative center of the Benishangul-Gumuz region, which borders Sudan. The city lies about 476 kilometers (296 miles) west of Addis Ababa and 648 kilometers (403 miles) southeast of Khartoum. Ethiopian authorities have not publicly explained the decision.

Key figures: 6 sudanese diplomatic and consular officials ordered out · 48 hours deadline to leave ethiopia · 187 drones sudan alleges were launched from ethiopia

The move follows complaints by Sudan to the U.N. Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council accusing Ethiopia of facilitating drone operations by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has been fighting Sudan’s army since April 2023. Sudanese presidential adviser Amjad Farid alleged that 70 attacks involving 187 explosive drones were launched from Ethiopia between Feb. 15 and Oct. 27, killing more than 400 civilians, and said Khartoum reserved the right to respond. The allegations have not been independently verified, and Ethiopia has accused Sudan of backing armed groups involved in its own internal conflicts. TBR reported on Sudan’s complaint in our Nov. 2 Africa report and on earlier drone strikes in Sudan’s Blue Nile region in our October report.

UN: “This is about people”

The U.N.’s top official in Sudan, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown, said an “intense pattern of drone strikes over the past couple of weeks” appears to be targeting civilian infrastructure, UN News reported. “Sources of energy and fuel appear to be systematically targeted and destroyed,” she said. When drone strikes cut electricity to a hospital just outside Khartoum that had no generator or solar panels, dialysis treatment for 25 patients stopped. Hundreds of aid trucks are stranded by fuel shortages, and in Khartoum, people wait in lines kilometers long for fuel. “This is not about politics. This is about people,” Brown said.

US contractor admits passing secrets to Ethiopia

Abraham Teklu Lemma, an Ethiopian-born American citizen and former U.S. government contractor, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to transmit national defense information to Ethiopia, BBC News reported. Prosecutors said he shared dozens of classified documents and photographs, including satellite imagery, with senior Ethiopian officials and hoped the information would help target and kill fighters from the Tigray region during the 2020-22 civil war. In a December 2021 message, he urged an official: “Please send Dro[nes].” The 54-year-old faces up to 22 years in prison under a plea agreement, and his sentencing is scheduled for April 14, 2027.

“In doing so, he betrayed his oath, his colleagues, and his country, while jeopardizing our national security,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. “Lemma betrayed the United States to an extraordinary degree,” said Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg. Lemma had worked as a contractor at the State Department, the Justice Department and the National Reconnaissance Office. A 2022 peace deal ended the Tigray war, but fighting resumed in September after both sides accused each other of violating it.

Fighting in Tigray and Amhara

Ethiopian government forces and allied fighters killed Col. Semere Teklu, commander of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s Army 92 unit, in fighting in Bizet in eastern Tigray, political activist Jawar Mohammed said Tuesday, Anadolu reported. Two other TPLF commanders were captured. The TPLF had claimed Monday that its forces killed 500 Ethiopian soldiers and wounded 800 in clashes near Aksum on Oct. 31; neither side’s claims have been independently verified. Government forces also recaptured the town of Wuchale in the Amhara region from Fano rebels, Wazema Radio reported.

Congo and Somalia

A rebel coalition in the Democratic Republic of Congo that includes the M23, the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation led by former President Joseph Kabila, threatened to withdraw from the Doha peace talks if the government proceeds with a referendum to amend the constitution, Anadolu reported. “If this Constitution is ever changed, the whole Doha peace process will simply collapse,” FRN vice president Bertrand Bisimwa said after the group met in Goma with U.N. officials led by MONUSCO chief James Swan. Critics say the referendum law, approved unanimously by Congo’s Senate last week, could let President Félix Tshisekedi seek a third term.

Somalia condemned Israel’s “purported accreditation” of an ambassador in the breakaway region of Somaliland, calling it “null and void,” Anadolu reported. The Foreign Ministry said the move compounds Israel’s recognition of Somaliland in December 2025, which the African Union and others have already rejected.

In Nigeria, suspected armed bandits killed four people and injured five at the Abeda Shitile market in Benue State’s Logo Local Government Area on Tuesday, residents said, Premium Times reported. More regional coverage is in our Nov. 3 Africa security update.

Watch for official confirmation of the expulsions from Addis Ababa or Khartoum, Sudan’s response and any U.N. Security Council action on the drone complaints.

Sources

• Anadolu Agency: Ethiopia orders 6 Sudanese diplomatic officials to leave, closes consulate: Reports
• UN News: 'This is not about politics. This is about people': UN warns of impact of deadly drone strikes in Sudan
• BBC News: US contractor gave Ethiopia secrets to help kill Tigray fighters
• Anadolu Agency: Ethiopian forces kill Tigray rebel commander, capture 2 others: Activist
• Anadolu Agency: DRC rebels threaten to abandon Doha peace talks over proposed constitutional referendum
• Anadolu Agency: Somalia condemns Israeli envoy's accreditation in breakaway Somaliland
• Premium Times: Gunmen kill four, injure five in market attack

Additional sources

• Anadolu: 'We don't know what they are facing': Nigerian parents fear for 14 schoolchildren abducted from farm