ADDIS ABABA, 01 December 2021, (TON): Ethiopia has denied it staged an attack over the weekend along its shared border with Sudan, blaming unrest in the disputed zone on rebels from its war-hit Tigray region.

Sudan's military said "several soldiers had been killed in an attack by armed groups and militias linked to the Ethiopian military in the fertile expanse known as Al-Fashaqa.”

The area has long been a source of tension between Addis Ababa and Khartoum, sparking deadly clashes over the last year.

But in comments that aired on state media Sunday, Ethiopian government spokesman Legesse Tulu dismissed claims the military had attacked Sudan as "groundless".

Instead he blamed the violence on the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the insurgent group that has been locked in a gruesome war against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government since November 2020 and claims to be approaching the capital Addis Ababa.

Legesse said in comments aired by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, without providing evidence "a large group of insurgents, bandits and terrorists had entered [from Sudan].”

He added "the Ethiopian National Defense Force and the local militia have destroyed them.”