There was no independent word available on the motives and identity of the 32 dead, nor of the 33 other people an Ethiopian security official said were captured in the clashes on Monday.

Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu, contacted from Nairobi for comment, said Eritrea would have a statement shortly.

Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70,000. An independent commission awarded Eritrea a disputed border town, but Ethiopia has only accepted the ruling in principle and the frontier has yet to be demarcated.

In recent months, rhetoric over the border situation has been heating up and Ethiopia moved troops closer to the U.N.-patrolled security zone separating the two.

Jemil Hadji, head of security of Ethiopia’s Somali region, said members of the armed gang were Somali men who said they belonged to the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Movement, a group of ethnic Somalis fighting for independence from Ethiopia.

“The Eritrean authorities airlifted the armed group to Dusamarbeer town inside Somalia on Monday and they were then told to cross into Ethiopia with instructions to create havoc and disrupt next month’s national election,” he said.

Jemil said the Somalis told them they had been lured to Eritrea with the promise of higher education.

“The Eritrean-trained armed group, which numbered over 300 was spotted while crossing the border from Somalia near Shilabo,” Jemil told Reuters over the telephone from Jijjiga, the capital of the Somali region.

Shilabo is 1,500 km (932 miles) east of Addis Ababa on the border with lawless Somalia.

On May 15, 36 political parties will vie for seats in Ethiopia’s 547-member federal parliament. The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front is strongly favoured to win.

• There are unconfirmed reports that Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki, a mere survivor of the 1998 war, is planning to use small, Eritrea-based Ethiopian rebel groups as a launching pad for an all-out war with Ethiopia. Suspected conflict flare-up zones are The Humera-Om Hajer region b) The Gambella-Benishangul region c) The Assab region, and d) the Ogaden region. Observers say if Prime Minister Meles Zenawi doesn’t betray the country once again, the Ethiopian armed forces are capable of removing the Eritrean tyrant in Asmara, and restoring peace and stability to the troubled region.

• In the above Reuters news, the reporter’s inclusion of the last line which reads, “The ruling party EPRDF is strongly favored to win,” is unsubstantiated by any credible evidence. It only reflects the reporter’s personal opinion, which shouldn’t be mistaken for a fact in a news report. In fact, the reverse may be true: Opposition parties like the Coalition of Unity and Democracy (CUD) have grown in popularity both in the civilian and military communities of Ethiopia. To arrest such public support, the ruling party of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is planning to launch a massive crackdown on what it calls “hooligans” that have the potential to disrupt the May 15 elections. It is to be recalled the ruling regime had tried to stop university students from casting ballots, but succeeded in expelling most credible U.S. and European observers it feared would have no qualms to expose state-sponsored irregularities.