NAIROBI, Kenya 

Ethiopia’s prime minister and Sudan’s leader on Tuesday agreed to calm tensions between the two countries and resolve outstanding issues through talks. 

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of Sudan met on the sidelines of a regional conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

“We have both agreed that our two countries have plenty of collaborative elements to work on peacefully,” Abiy tweeted, saying they made a commitment to dialogue and peaceful resolution of outstanding issues.

The meeting comes amid heightened tensions between the two countries after armed clashes over a disputed territory called al-Fashqa along the border.

The chairperson of the African Union Commission on Wednesday called on both Sudan and Ethiopia to refrain from military escalation over the al-Fashqa border area.

Al-Fashqa, a northern border triangle between Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea, has been a flashpoint over the past decade between Sudan and Ethiopia.

The two Eastern African nations share a 1,600-kilometre-long (994-mile) boundary that has never been delimited, causing intermittent confrontations.

A June 22 incident at the contested area in which seven Sudanese soldiers and one civilian were killed caused the latest escalation, with the two countries trading blames for the incident.