Clashes erupt between
Ethiopia and Eritrean troops in disputed border region, raising fears of
renewed violence.
Al Jazeera
Ethiopia and Eritrea have exchanged accusations over
who started Sunday's fighting at their disputed border
BBC
Ethiopia and Eritrea have traded blame over fresh clashes in a disputed
border region that triggered a bloody war in 1998-2000 and killed thousands of
civilians.
Ethiopia said the situation was calm around the border town of Zalambessa on Monday, and government spokesman Getachew Reda alleged that Eritrean soldiers had been "promptly repulsed" by Ethiopian troops.
A resident in the
Ethiopian town of Zalambessa, across the border from Tsorona, told Reuters news
agency by telephone that he had heard the sound of shelling on Sunday and into
Monday morning. Eritrea disputed this
account, saying Ethiopia started the fight. Ethiopia said the situation was calm around the border town of Zalambessa on Monday, and government spokesman Getachew Reda alleged that Eritrean soldiers had been "promptly repulsed" by Ethiopian troops.
"The TPLF regime has
today, Sunday 12 June 2016, unleashed an attack against Eritrea on the Tsorona
Central Front," Eritrea's Information Ministry said in a statement.
"The purpose and
ramifications of this attack are not clear," it added. TPLF refers to Ethiopia's
Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, one of the four parties making up the
ruling coalition.
Eritrea, which won
independence from Ethiopia in 1991, fought a bloody border war with its larger
neighbour between 1998 and 2000 which killed about 70,000 people.
Both routinely accuse
each other of backing rebels trying to destabilise and topple the other's
government, a legacy from the earlier war. Eritrea, which is under
UN sanctions, says world powers have failed to push Ethiopia to accept an
international arbitration ruling demarcating the boundary. Ethiopia's
government has said it wants talks on implementation.
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