Chief of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan thanked Egypt on Tuesday and assured it that its citizens in Sudan are safe, while calling for continued trade and communication between the two countries.

“We thank our neighbors in the Arab Republic of Egypt and assure them that your sons here are safe and have no problems,” Burhan said, addressing a public gathering in Wadi Halfa, in Sudan’s Northern State.

Burhan also expressed his desire to see cross-border trade and communication continue, along with electricity supplies to Sudan, and called for strengthening shared interests between the two countries.

His remarks came about a week after a shooting in Khartoum killed two Egyptian truck drivers and injured a third.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on October 12 that an armed man had opened fire on a group of Egyptian truck drivers in Khartoum, killing two and injuring another.

Sudanese authorities confirmed that the suspected perpetrator had been arrested, the ministry noted.