Ethiopia, Sudan Intelligence Agencies Agree to Fight Border Crimes

ADDIS ABEBA – Intelligence agencies of Ethiopia and Sudan have signed an agreement to work together in fighting crimes alongside the border between the two countries.

The agreement was signed by the Director-General of Ethiopia’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), Demelash Gebremichael and his Sudan’s counterpart Abu Bakr Mustafa.

Both intelligence services agreed to collaborate in the fight against terrorism, illicit movement of arms and financial flow, human trafficking, and border and organized crimes through the exchange of information.

The security services also agreed to carry out a series of operations to prevent crimes along their border, NISS said in a statement.

Defense forces of the nation already signed an agreement to deploy joint forces along their border to prevent weapons smuggling and sporadic skirmishes between armed groups from both sides.

The setting up of a joint border protection force comes after a series of high-level talks between officials from the neighboring countries over several months, according to Sudan’s official SUNA news agency report in March.

Khartoum and Addis Ababa share close diplomatic ties, but issues concerning some border areas have been a source of tension between the two.

Weapons allegedly smuggled from Sudan into Ethiopia have also been caught by security forces inside Ethiopian territory.