Hundreds flee Ethiopia’s Tigray into Sudan after border fighting

Displaced people who fled the fighting in the Tigray region collect clothes from donors. (EPA Images pic)KHARTOUM: Hundreds of Ethiopians from the northern Tigray region have crossed into neighbouring Sudan over the past two days, fleeing fighting near the border, Sudanese security and medical sources told AFP.The influx comes as Sudan itself remains engulfed in a brutal war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which erupted in April 2023.A member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) said clashes involving heavy artillery and drones between the Ethiopian army and Tigray rebels broke out in the western Tigray area of Shererina, near the Sudanese border, early on Saturday and continued until around 5pm.A Sudanese security source in the border town of Hamdayet said arrivals from Tigray included wounded fighters.A medical source at a border health centre said the injured received first aid before being transferred to al-Hashaba, 15km inside Sudan and home to thousands displaced by the 2020-2022 war between the Ethiopian army and Tigray rebels.The security source said al-Hashaba, also known as Village 8, serves as an "administrative hub" for Army 70, a TPLF-affiliated armed unit whose fighters fled to Sudan during the Tigray war and later fought alongside the Sudanese army against the RSF.ExplosionsResidents on the Sudanese side of the border reported hearing explosions and sustained gunfire throughout the fighting.A witness in Wad al-Hulaywah, about 40 kilometres from the frontier, said three powerful explosions were heard on Saturday morning."At around 4.30 pm local time, I could still hear heavy gunfire," the witness told AFP, adding that residents of nearby al-Qudaymah village had fled across the Setit River.Another witness in Hamdayet said explosions were audible throughout Saturday and that he "saw aircraft flying southwest of" the town.AFP was unable to independently verify the accounts.On Saturday, the TPLF accused Ethiopia's federal government of launching what it described as a "large-scale infantry offensive", a claim the authorities did not immediately address.AFP could not independently verify the TPLF's claims or identify the forces involved in the fighting in Shererina.Fighting has been taking place in the contested area of western Tigray, which is controlled by nationalists from the neighbouring Amhara regio…