Hemedti’s return to Addis Ababa on August 26 came as fighting intensified in Sudan’s Blue Nile region and his forces and allies moved closer to positions protecting the roads to Ed-Damazin, raising questions about Ethiopia’s role in the unfolding offensive.

The renewed clashes in the Tigray region were not simply a return to the previous conflict, but rather the culmination of unresolved issues stemming from the 1990 Pretoria Agreement.

Renewed fighting in Tigray, fueled by unresolved territorial disputes and regional tensions with Eritrea and Sudan, risks escalating into a prolonged conflict across the Horn of Africa.

The Sudanese conflict is no longer confined to the civil war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces militia, but has taken on rapidly escalating regional dimensions.

Sudan has raised tensions with Ethiopia and the UAE following drone strikes on Khartoum Airport and other regions, amid broader conflict dynamics, regional rivalries in the Horn of Africa, and ongoing disputes over borders, the GERD, and the Sudanese civil war.