Explosion in Ethiopia cafe kills 5, wounds over 20

Reuters | April 25, 2010

When Eritrea invaded Ethiopia in 1998, rebels of the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF) declared solidarity with the Ethiopian Defense Forces. Their demand for joint military operations that would reverse Eritrea’s annexation of Ethiopia’s Red Sea coast was rejected by Zenawi’s TPLF regime. Later, the regime launched massive military operations over a span of 10 years that eventually vanquished the Afar rebel front that was carrying an Ethiopian agenda. Photo shows the joint ARDUF-TPLF meeting in Dubti town, Afar region, Ethiopia (Photo: ARDUF 1999)

Editor’s note – The Ethiopian people, who lost 70,000 of their soldiers during the 1998-2000 War with Eritrea, resentfully remember that it was Meles Zenawi who aborted Ethiopia’s impending victory over the Eritrean invaders. Therefore, Meles Zenawi, who is an Eritrean in a Tigrian garb, lacks any credibility whatsoever when he blames Eritrea for the violence. In the region where the explosion took place, the opposition Arena/Medrek is very popular, and the blast could also be a scare tactic. It is upto the Ethiopian people to rally around the opposition Medrek, and work towards the removal of their opponent in power. – Abraha Belai, Ethiomedia Editor

MAKELLE, Ethiopia (Reuters) – An explosion at a cafe in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray killed five people Saturday and wounded 20 others, officials said, blaming the attack on neighboring Eritrea.

“This is an attack by the Eritrean government to deliberately disrupt the upcoming elections,” said Micheal Abraha, Tigray’s administrator.

Ethiopia is scheduled to hold national elections on May 23.

The explosion on a market day in the town of Adi-Daero came only a day after two Eritrean rebel groups said they had killed 11 government soldiers in coordinated attacks on military camps in southern Eritrea.

The two Horn of Africa neighbors have had long running hostilities and tensions simmer along their common border due to a dispute over the frontier.

Relations have been at an impasse since they fought a 1998-2000 war in which at least 70,000 people were killed.

Tigray’s regional president, Tsegay Berhe, said Eritrean agents sneaked into the country and were responsible for the attack.

“Ethiopian elections won’t be disrupted despite Eritrea’s attempts to do so,” he said.

There was no immediate comment from the Eritrean government.

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(Reporting by Tesfa-Alem Tekle; Editing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura)