Sudan state mobilizes against Eritrea 'threat'

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Authorities in Sudan's eastern Kassala state have ordered a general mobilization to confront an expected Eritrean offensive, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Eritrea said the move was groundless and there was no change in military activity along the border.

"There has been an increase in the level of Eritrean military buildup on the strip bordering Kassala state, stretching for 380 km (240 miles)," the state-owned newspaper al-Anbaa said.

It accused Eritrea of planning to attack because it believed Sudan helped Ethiopia in its two-year border war with Eritrea which was halted by a cease-fire accord in June. Tens of thousands of Eritreans fled to Sudan during the fighting.

"This foreign international plot targets Kassala state from three axes, the middle, the east and the south," al-Anbaa quoted an unnamed source in Kassala as saying.

It said the offensive would probably take place at the same time in the areas of Gadamayet and Gergif.

Eritrean presidential adviser Yemane Gebremeskel denied the accusations.

"There is no military build-up," he told Reuters from the Eritrean capital Asmara. "Relations are normal between the Eritrean and Sudanese governments. We certainly don't have a border problem with Sudan."

Al-Anbaa said there was evidence that the main Khartoum-Port Sudan highway would be targeted with the aim of reaching Sudan's only oil pipeline. It did not elaborate.

Hamashkoreib, a province in Kassala state, is almost entirely under the control of the rebel Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance. Sudan has accused Eritrea of supporting rebel groups in its 17-year civil war.

The newspaper said the Eritrean government had resupplied its troops with equipment in northern Hamashkoreib where it said they were "extensively" deployed.

Some of the Eritrean forces were now stationed near the areas of Gadamayet and Gergif, al-Anbaa said.

Another Khartoum daily, the independent al-Sahafi al-Douli said Sudan's National Defense Minister Bakri Hassan Salih was due in Asmara on Thursday to deliver a message from President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki on "the deterioration in security conditions on the joint border."

But Yemane said the visit was part of a "normal exchange of views" between the two countries.

"The fact that there is a high level delegation in Asmara is confirmation of normal relations," he said.

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