Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of border attack

Reuters | December 27, 2007

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Eritrea has accused Ethiopia of launching an attack on its security forces on Tuesday this week, describing it as part of ongoing provocation along their disputed border.

In a statement posted on its Web site shabait.com late on Wednesday, Asmara said the relatively small-scale raid targeted its troops and allied militias in the South Tsorona region, inside a former buffer zone, and ended in failure.

“(The) attack comes in continuation to (Ethiopia’s) ongoing provocation and aggression in the Gash-Barka and Southern regions, whereby it planted mines, carried out incursions, abducted nationals and burned crop fields to the ground,” the Eritrean statement said.

Ethiopian officials were not immediately available to comment on the allegation, but they routinely reject Eritrea’s version of border incidents.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Ethiopia to avoid raising tensions with Eritrea.

About 70,000 people were killed in a 1998-2000 border war between the two neighbours. In November, an international commission charged with setting the 1,000-km (620-mile) frontier dissolved itself, leaving the two states to work it out alone. (Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

Meanwhile, the United Nations force monitoring the contested border between Eritrea and Ethiopia voiced concern Thursday over gunshots fired from within a safe buffer zone. The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said its observer team heard firing sounds in the border area Wednesday and notified the neighbouring arch-enemies about the incident, both of whom acknowledged the occurrence.

The Eritrean information ministry placed blame squarely on Ethiopia.

“UNMEE expresses concern about this firing incident between Ethiopia and Eritrea and is calling on both parties to show maximum restraint,” the mission said in a statement.

Editor’s Note

Meles Zenawi and Isaias Afwerki may once again launch border attacks that may lead to the deaths of a few thousands of soldiers from each side. However, like the 1998-2000 War which consumed nearly 100,000 lives, any forthcoming attacks do not mean anything to the two sides who fought primarily for Eritrean independence from what they call Ethiopian colonialism. Whatever the magnitude of the conflict, it is Ethiopia – the country both groups turned it into a landlocked nation – that would suffer the consequences as it is certainly not in the hands of Ethiopians.