Sudanese army accuses Libya’s Haftar forces of border attack

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CAIRO (Reuters) -The Sudanese army accused forces under eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar of attacking border posts on Tuesday, the first time it has accused its northwestern neighbour of direct involvement in the country’s two-year war.

The war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, whom the military also accused of involvement in the border attack, has drawn in multiple foreign countries, while international attempts at bringing about peace have so far failed.

Sudan had early in the war accused eastern Libya’s Haftar of supporting the RSF via weapons deliveries. It has long accused Haftar’s ally the United Arab Emirates of supporting the RSF as well, including via direct drone strikes last month. The UAE denies those allegations.

Haftar forces denied involvement in the attack and accused a force affiliated with the Sudanese armed forces of attacking a military patrol while it was carrying out “its legitimate duty to secure the Libyan side of the border.”

“These allegations are a blatant attempt to export Sudan’s internal crisis and create a virtual external enemy,” the General Command of the National Libyan Army added in a statement.

Egypt, which has also backed Haftar, has long supported the Sudanese army.

In a statement, the Sudanese army said the attack took place in the Libya-Egypt-Sudan border triangle, an area to the north of one of the war’s main front lines, al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur.

“We will defend our country and our national sovereignty, and will prevail, regardless of the extent of the conspiracy and aggression supported by the United Arab Emirates and its militias in the region,” the Sudanese army said in a statement.

(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din, Jaidaa Taha and Enas Alashray in Cairo, and Khalid Abdelaziz; writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Hugh Lawson and Lincoln Feast.)